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MEMOIE 


OF 


THE     LIFE     OF1 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


B  Y 


JOSIAH   QUINCY,  LL.  D. 


Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum,  ,,£, 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Nou  vultus  instantis  tyraiini, 
Mente  quatit  solida. 


BOSTON: 
OROSBY,   XICHOLS,   LEE   AND   COMPANY. 

1860. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

PHILLIPS,  SAMPSON  &  CO., 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Stereotyped  by 

HOBAUT    &    HOB  BINS, 
New  England  Typo  a:il  Srerc-otypc  Foundery, 


THE   PRESIDENT   AND   MEMBERS 

OF     T  H  K 

MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY, 


PREPARED      AT      THEIR      REQUEST, 

IS 
BESPECTFTTLLY   DEDICATED, 

B  Y 
THEIR     ASSOCIATE, 

JOSIAH  QUINCY. 

BOSTON,  June  1,  1858. 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


THE  ensuing  Memoir  comprises  the  most  important 
events  in  the  life  of  a  statesman  second  to  none  of  his 
contemporaries  in  laborious  and  faithful  devotion  to  the 
service  of  his  country. 

The  light  attempted  to  be  thrown  on  his  course  has 
been  derived  from  personal  acquaintance,  from  his  public 
works,  and  from  authentic  unpublished  materials. 

The  chief  endeavor  has  been  to  render  him  the 
expositor  of  his  own  motives,  principles,  and  character, 
without  fear  or  favor,  —  in  the  spirit  neither  of  criticism 

or  eulogy. 

JOSIAH  QUINCY. 

BOSTON,  June  1,  1858. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PADS 

BIRTH. — EDUCATION. RESIDENCE     IN     EUROPE.  —  AT     COLLEGE. — AT 

THE     BAR. POLITICAL     ESSAYS. MINISTER     AT     THE     HAGUE AT 

BERLIN. RETURN    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES,  1 

CHAPTER    II. 

RESIDENCE    IN    BOSTON. RETURNS     TO    THE    BAR.  -*-  ELECTED    TO    THE 

SENATE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS TO  THE  SENATE  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

HIS    COURSE    RELATIVE   TO    THE    ATTACK    OF    THE    LEOPARD    ON   THE 

CHESAPEAKE. RESIGNS     HIS     SEAT      AS     SENATOR     OF     THE     UNITED 

STATES. APPOINTED    MINISTER      TO      RUSSIA. FINAL     SEPARATION 

FROM    THE    FEDERAL   PARTY,  25 

CHAPTER    III. 

VOYAGE. ARRIVAL     AT     ST.     PETERSBURG. PRESENTATION     TO     THE 

EMPEROR. RESIDENCE  AT  THE  IMPERIAL  COURT. DIPLOMATIC  IN 
TERVIEWS. PRIVATE  STUDIES. APPOINTED  ONE  OF  THE  COMMIS 
SIONERS  TO  TREAT  FOR  PEACE  WITH  GREAT  BRITAIN.  —  LEAVES 
RUSSIA, 44 

CHAPTER    IV. 

RESIDENCE   AT    GHENT AT    PARIS IN    LONDON. PRESENTATION    TO 

THE    PRINCE    REGENT. NEGOTIATION    WITH    LORD    CASTLEREAGH. 

APPOINTED    SECRETARY   OF    STATE. LEAVES   ENGLAND,         ....       59 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER    V. 

FIRST    TERM    OF    MR.    MONROE'S    ADMINISTRATION. STATE   OF    PARTIES. 

—  SEMINOLE    WAR.  — TAKING     OF    PENSACOLA. NEGOTIATION    WITH 

SPAIN. PURCHASE   OF    THE   FLORIDAS. COLONIZATION    SOCIETY. 

THE   ADMISSION    OF    MISSOURI    INTO   THE   UNION, 77 

CHAPTER    VI. 

SECOND  TERM  OF  MONROE'S  PRESIDENCY. STATE  OF  PARTIES. RE 
PORT  ON  WEIGHTS  AND  MEASURES. PROCEEDINGS  AT  GHENT  VIN 
DICATED. VOTES  WHEN  HE  WAS  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  SENATE  OF 

THE     UNITED     STATES     DEFENDED. INDEPENDENCE     OF     GREECE. 

CONTESTS  OF   PARTIES. ELECTED   PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,    120 

CHAPTER    VII. 

ADMINISTRATION      AS      PRESIDENT. POLICY. RECOMMENDATIONS      TO 

CONGRESS. PRINCIPLES    RELATIVE   TO    OFFICIAL   APPOINTMENTS    AND 

REMOVALS. COURSE     IN     ELECTION     CONTESTS. TERMINATION     OF 

HIS   PRESIDENCY, 142 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

PURSUITS    OF    MR.    ADAMS    IN    RETIREMENT. ELECTED    TO    CONGRESS. 

PARTIES    AND     THEIR     PROCEEDINGS. HIS     COURSE     IN    RESPECT    OF 

THEM. HIS     OWN     ADMINISTRATION     AND     THAT     OF    HIS    SUCCESSOR 

COMPARED. REPORT     ON    MANUFACTURES     AND     THE     DANK    OF    THE 

UNITED  STATES. REFUSAL  TO  VOTE,  AND  CONSEQUENT  PROCEED 
INGS.  SPEECH  AND  REPORT  ON  THE  MODIFICATION  OF  THE  TARIFF 

AND    SOUTH    CAROLINA   NULLIFICATION, 175 

CHAPTER    IX. 

INFLUENCE  OF  MILITARY  SUCCESS. POLICY  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION. 

—  MR.  ADAMS'  SPEECH  ON  THE  REMOVAL  OF  THE  DEPOSITS  FROM 
THE  BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. HIS  OPINIONS  ON  FREE 
MASONRY  AND  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETIES. EULOGY  ON  WILLIAM  WIRT. 

ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  LAFAYETTE. HIS  COURSE 

ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS ON  INTERFERENCE  WITH  THE  INSTITU 
TION  OF  SLAVERY ON  THE  POLICY  RELATIVE  TO  THE  PUBLIC 

LANDS. SPEECH     ON     DISTRIBUTING     RATIONS     TO     FUGITIVES     FROM 

INDIAN    HOSTILITIES ON   WAR   WITH    MEXICO. EULOGY    OV    JAMES 

MADISON. HIS    COURSE    ON    A    PETITION    PURPORTING    TO    BE    FROM 

SLAVES. FIRST    REPORT    ON   JAMES    SMITUSON's    BEQUEST,          .       .    '.    212 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER    X. 

MARTIN    VAX    BUREN    PRESIDENT    OF  THE   UNITED    STATES. MR.   ADAMS' 

SPEECH    ON    THE    CLAIMS    OF    THE    DEPOSIT    BANKS. HIS    LETTER   ON 

BOOKS    FOR    UNIVERSAL    READING. ORATION    AT    NEWBURYPORT. 

SPEECH   ON    THE    RIGHT   OF    PETITION. —LETTER    T6    TH"E    MASSACHB-* 

SETTS    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY. ADDRESS    TO    THE    INHABITANTS    OF 

HIS  DISTRICT. HIS  VIEWS  AS  TO  THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  SMITH 
SONIAN  FUND. HIS  INTEREST  IN  THE  SCIENCE  OF  ASTRONOMY. 

LETTER  TO  THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  ON  AN  ASTRONOMICAL  OBSERV 
ATORY. LETTER  ON  THE  ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  DISTRICT 

OF     COLUMBIA. RESOLUTION'S     F<^     THfr     I-JHTTING    OF    HEREDITARY 

SLAVERY. DISCOURSE  BEFORE  THE  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

ADDRESS  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  EDUCATION. REMARKS  ON  PHRE 
NOLOGY ON  THE  LICENSE  LAW  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. HE  ORGAN 
IZES  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 2G8 

CHAPTER    XI. 

SECOND    REPORT    ON    THE    SMITHSONIAN    FUND. HIS   SPEECH  ONT   A    BILL 

FOR  INSURING  A  MORE  FAITHFUL  EXECUTION  OF  THE  LAWS  RELAT 
ING  TO  THE  COLLECTION  OF  DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.  —  REMARKS  ON 
THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  AN  EXTENSIVE  SERIES  OF  MAGNETICAL  AND 

METEOROLOGICAL     OBSERVATIONS  OX      ITINERANT     ELECTIONEERING 

ON  ABUSES  IN  RESPECT  TO  THE  NAVY  FUND ON  THE  POLITI 
CAL  INFLUENCES  OF  THE  TIME  —  ON  THE  ORIGIN  AND  RESULTS  OF 
THE  FLORIDA  WAR. HIS  DENUNCIATION  OF  DUELLING. HIS  ARGU 
MENT  IN  THE  SUPREME  COURT  ON  BEHALF  OF  AFRICANS  CAPTURED 
IN  THE  AMISTAD, .  302 

CHAPTER    XII. 

WILLIAM    HENRY    HARRISON    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. HIS 

DEATH. VICE-PRESIDENT     JOHN     TYLER     SUCCEEDS. REMARKS     OF 

MR.     ADAMS     ON     THE     OCCASION. HIS     SPEECH     ON     THE     CASE     OF 

ALEXANDER    M'LEOD. HIS   VIEWS    CONCERNING   COMMONPLACE   BOOKS. 

HIS    LECTURE   ON    CHINA    AND    CHINESE    COMMERCE. REMARKS    ON 

THE    STATE    OF    THE    COUNTRY,    AND    HIS     DUTY    IN    RELATION    TO    IT. 

HIS    PRESENTATION   OF    A    PETITION    FOR   THE    DISSOLUTION    OF    THE 

UNION,     AND     THE     VOTE     TO    CENSURE     HIM      FOR     DOING      IT. HIS 

THIRD    REPORT    ON    MR.    SMITHSON's    BEQUEST. HIS    SPEECH    ON    THE 

MISSION    TO    MEXICO, .    32S 


X  CONTENTS. 

f 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

REPORT   ON   PRESIDENT    TYLER'S   APPROVAL,    WITH   OBJECTIONS,    OF    THE 

BILL   FOR   THE   APPORTIONMENT    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT    ON 

HIS   VETO    OF    THE    BILL    TO    PROVIDE   A    REVENUE    FROM    IMPORTS. 

LECTURE   ON    THE    SOCIAL    COMPACT,    AND    THE    THEORIES    OF    FILMER, 

HOBBES,    SYDNEY,    AND    LOCKE. ADDRESS    TO    HIS    CONSTITUENTS   ON 

THE   POLICY    OF    PRESIDENT    TYLER'S   ADMINISTRATION. ADDRESS   TO 

THE  NORFOLK    COUNTY    TEMPERANCE    SOCIETY. DISCOURSE    ON    THE 

NEW   ENGLAND    CONFEDERACY   OF   1643. LETTER  TO   THE   CITIZENS   OF 

BANGOR   ON   WEST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION. ORATION    ON    LAYING    THE 

CORNER-STONE   OF    THE    CINCINNATI   OBSERVATORY, 364 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

REPORT    ON    THE    RESOLVES    OF    THE     LEGISLATURE    OF     MASSACHUSETTS 
PROPOSING    AN    AMENDMENT    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE    UNITED 

STATES    IN   EFFECT    TO    ABOLISH    A    REPRESENTATION    FOR     SLAVES. 

FOURTH    REPORT    ON    JAMES     SMITHSON's     BEQUEST. INFLUENCE    OF 

MR.  ADAMS  ON  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  OBSERV 
ATORY  AND  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. GENERAL  JACKSON'S 

CHARGE  THAT  THE  RIO  GRANDE  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  OBTAINED,  UNDER 
THE  SPANISH  TREATY,  AS  A  BOUNDARY  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
REFUTED.  —  ADDRESS  TO  HIS  CONSTITUENTS  AT  WEYMOUTH. RE 
MARKS  ON  THE  RETROCESSION  OF  ALEXANDRIA  TO  VIRGINIA. HIS 

PARALYSIS.  —  RECEPTION     BY    THE    HOUSE    OF     REPRESENTATIVES. 

HIS    DEATH. FUNERAL    HONORS. TRIBUTE    TO    HIS    MEMORY,        .       .    409 


MEMOIR 


OF 


JOHN    QUINCY  ADAMS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

BIRTH. EDUCATION. RESIDENCE  IN   EUROPE. AT   COLLEGE. AT  THE 

BAR. POLITICAL    ESSAYS. MINISTER    AT    THE    HAGUE AT    BERLIN. 

RETURN    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS,  son  of  John  and  Abigail 
Adams,  was  born  on  the  llth  of  July,  1767,  in  the 
North  Parish  of  Braintree,  Massachusetts — since  incor 
porated  as  the  town  of  Quincy.  The  lives  and  char 
acters  of  his  parents,  intimately  associated  with  the 
history  of  the  American  Revolution,  have  been 
already  ably  and  faithfully  illustrated.* 

The  origin  of  his  name  was  thus  stated  by  himself : 
"  My  great-grandfather,  John  Quincy,  f  was  dying 
when  I  was  baptized,  and  his  daughter,  my  grand 
mother,  requested  I  might  receive  his  name.  This 
fact,  recorded  by  my  father  at  the  time,  is  not  with 
out  a  moral  to  my  heart,  and  has  connected  with  that 

*  See  "Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams,  with  an  Introductory  Memoir,"  and  "The 
Works  of  John  Adams,  Second  President  of  the  United  States,  "with  a  Life  of 
the  Author,"  by  their  grandson,  Charles  Francis  Adams. 

t  John  Quincy  represented  the  town  of  Braintree  in  the  colonial  legislature 
forty  years,  and  long  held  the  office  of  speaker. 
1 


2  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

portion  of  my  name  a  charm  of  mingled  sensibility 
and  devotion.  It  was  filial  tenderness  that  gave  the 
name  —  it  was  the  name  of  one  passing  from  earth  to 
immortality.  These  have  been,  through  life,  perpet* 
ual  admonitions  to  do  nothing  unworthy  of  it." 

At  Braintree  his  mother  watched  over  his  childhood. 
At  the  village  school  he  learned  the  rudiments  of  the 
English  language.  In  after  life  he  often  playfully 
boasted  that  the  dame  who  taught  him  to  spell  flat 
tered  him  into  learning  his  letters  by  telling  him  he 
would  prove  a  scholar.  The  notes  and  habits  of  the 
birds  and  wild  animals  of  the  vicinity  early  excited 
his  attention,  and  led  him  to  look  on  nature  with  a 
lover's  eye,  creating  an  attachment  to  the  home  of 
his  childhood,  which  time  strengthened.  Many  years 
afterwards,  when  residing  in  Europe,  he  wrote : 
"  Penn's  Hill  and  Braintree  North  Common  Rocks 
never  looked  and  never  felt  to  me  like  any  other  hill 
or  any  other  rocks  ;  because  every  rock  and  every 
pebble  upon  them  associates  itself  with  the  first  con 
sciousness  of  my  existence.  If  there  is  a  Bostonian 
who  ever  sailed  from  his  own  harbor  for  distant  lands, 
or  returned  to  it  from  them,  without  feelings,  at  the 
sight  of  the  Blue  Hills,  which  he  is  unable  to  express, 
his  heart  is  differently  constituted  from  mine." 

These  local  attachments  were  indissolubly  associated 
with  the  events  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  with 
the  patriotic  principles  instilled  by  his  mother.  Stand 
ing  with  her  on  the  summit  of  Penn's  Hill,  he  heard 
the  cannon  booming  from  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill, 
and  saw  the  smoke  and  flames  of  burning  Charlestown 


MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.       3 

During  the  siege  of  Boston  he  often  climbed  the  same 
eminence  alone,  to  watch  the  shells  and  rockets  thrown 
by  the  American  army. 

With  a  mind  prematurely  developed  and  cultivated 
by  the  influence  of  the  characters  of  his  parents  and 
the  stirring  events  of  that  period,  he  embarked,  at 
the  age  of  eleven  years,  in  February,  1778,  from  the 
shore  of  his  native  town,  with  his  father,  in  a  small 
boat,  which  conveyed  them  to  a  ship  in  Nantasket 
Roads,  bound  for  Europe.  John  Adams  had  been 
associated  in  a  commission  with  Benjamin  Franklin 
and  Arthur  Lee,  as  plenipotentiary  to  the  Court  of 
France.  After  residing  in  Paris  until  June,  1779, 
he  returned  to  America,  accompanied  by  his  son. 
Being  immediately  appointed,  by  Congress,  minister 
plenipotentiary  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace  and 
commerce  with  Great  Britain,  they  both  returned 
together  to  France  in  November,  taking  passage  in  a 
French  frigate.  On  this  his  second  voyage  to  Europe, 
young  Adams  began  a  diary,  which,  with  few  inter 
missions,  he  continued  through  life.  While  in  Paris 
he  resumed  the  study  of  the  ancient  and  modern  lan 
guages,  which  had  been  interrupted  by  his  return  to 
America. 

In  July,  1780,  John  Adams  having  been  appointed 
ambassador  to  the  Netherlands,  his  son  was  removed 
from  the  schools  of  Paris  to  those  of  Amsterdam,  and 
subsequently  to  the  University  of  Leyden.  There  he 
pursued  his  studies  until  July,  1781,  when,  in  his 
fourteenth  year,  he  was  selected  by  Francis  Dana, 
minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  to  the 


4  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Eussian  court,  as  his  private  secretary,  and  accom 
panied  him  through  Germany  to  St.  Petersburg. 
Having  satisfactorily  discharged  his  official  duties,  and 
pursued  his  Latin,  German,  and  French  studies,  with 
a  general  course  of  English  history,  until  September, 
1782,  he  left  St.  Petersburg  for  Stockholm,  where 
he  passed  the  winter.  In  the  ensuing  spring,  after 
travelling  through  the  interior  of  Sweden,  and  visiting 
Copenhagen  and  Hamburg,  he  joined  his  father  at 
the  Hague,  and  accompanied  him  to  Paris.  They 
travelled  leisurely,  forming  an  acquaintance  with 
eminent  men  on  their  route,  and  examining  archi 
tectural  remains,  the  paintings  of  the  great  Flemish 
masters,  and  all  the  treasures  of  the  fine  arts,  in  the 
countries  through  which  they  passed.  In  Paris,  young 
Adams  was  present  at  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  in  1783,  and  was  admitted  into  the  society  of 
Franklin,  Jefferson,  Jay,  Barclay,  Hartley,  the  Abbe 
Mably,  and  many  other  eminent  statesmen  and  lite 
rary  men.  After  passing  a  few  months  in  England, 
with  his  father,  he  returned  to  Paris,  and  resumed  his 
studies,  which  he  continued  until  May,  1785,  when  he 
embarked  for  the  United  States.  .This  return  to  his 
own  country  caused  a  mental  struggle,  in  which  his 
judgment  controlled  his  inclination.  His  father  had 
just  been  appointed  minister  at  the  Court  of  Great 
Britain,  and,  as  one  of  his  family,  it  would  have  been 
to  him  a  high  gratification  to  reside  in  England.  His 
feelings  and  views  on  the  occasion  he  thus  expressed  : 
"I  have  been  seven  years  travelling  in  Europe, 
seeing  the  world,  and  in  its  society.  If  I  return  to 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  o 

the  United  States,  I  must  be  subject,  one  or  two  years, 
to  the  rules  of  a  college,  pass  three  more  in  the  tedi 
ous  study  of  the  law,  before  I  can  hope  to  bring 
myself  into  professional  notice.  The  prospect  is  dis 
couraging.  If  I  accompany  my  father  to  London,  my 
satisfaction  would  possibly  be  greater  than  by  return 
ing  to  the  United  States  ;  but  I  shall  loiter  away  my 
precious  time,  and  not  go  home  until  I  am  forced  to  it. 
My  father  has  been  all  his  lifetime  occupied  by  the 
interests  of  the  public.  His  own  fortune  has  suffered. 
His  children  must  provide  for  themselves.  I  am  deter 
mined  to  get  my  own  living,  and  to  be  dependent 
upon  no  one.  With  a  tolerable  share  of  common 
sense,  I  hope,  in  America,  to  be  independent  and  free. 
Rather  than  live  otherwise,  I  would  wish  to  die  before 
my  time/' 

In  this  spirit  the  tempting  prospects  in  Europe  were 
abandoned,  and  he  returned  to  the  United  States,  to 
submit  to  the  rules,  and  to  join,  with  a  submissive 
temper,  the  comparatively  uninteresting  associations, 
of  college  life.  After  reviewing  his  studies  under  an 
instructor,  he  entered,  in  March,  1786,  the  junior 
class  of  Harvard  University.  Diligence  and  punc 
tual  fulfilment  of  every  prescribed  duty,  the  ad 
vantages  he  had  previously  enjoyed,  and  his  exem 
plary  compliance  with  the  rules  of  the  seminary, 
secured  to  him  a  high  standing  in  his  class,  which 
none  were  disposed  to  controvert.  Here  his  active 
and  thoughtful  mind  was  prepared  for  those  scenes 
in  future  life  in  which  he  could  not  but  feel  he  was 
destined  to  take  part.  Entering  into  all  the  literary 


6  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

and  social  circles  of  the  college,  he  became  popular 
among  his  classmates.  By  the  government  his  con 
duct  and  attainments  were  duly  appreciated,  which 
they  manifested  by  bestowing  upon  him  the  second 
honor  of  his  class  at  commencement ;  a  high  distinc 
tion,  considering  the  short  period  he  had  been  a  mem 
ber  of  the  university.  The  oration  he  delivered  when 
he  graduated,  in  1787,  on  the  Importance  of  Public 
Faith  to  the  Well-Being  of  a  Community,  was  printed 
and  published  ;  a  rare  proof  of  general  interest  in  a 
college  exercise,  which  the  adaptation  of  the  subject 
to  the  times,  and  the  talent  it  evinced,  justified. 

After  leaving  the  university,  Mr.  Adams  passed 
three  years  in  Newburyport  as  a  student  at  law  under 
the  guidance  of  Theophilus  Parsons,  afterwards  chief 
justice  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1790,  and  immediately  opened  an  office  in  Bos 
ton.  The  ranks  of  his  profession  were  crowded, 
the  emoluments  were  small,  and  his  competitors  able. 
His  letters  feelingly  express  his  anxiety  to  relieve  his 
parents  from  contributing  to  his  support.  In  No 
vember,  1843,  in  an  address  to  the  bar  of  Cincinnati, 
Mr.  Adams  thus  described  the  progress  and  termina 
tion  of  his  practice  as  a  lawyer  •  — 

"  I  have  been  a  member  of  your  profession  upwards  of  half 
a  century.  In  the  early  period  of  my  life,  having  a  father 
abroad,  it  was  rny  fortune  to  travel  in  foreign  countries  ;  still, 
under  the  impression  which  I  first  received  from  my  mother, 
that  in  this  country  every  man  should  have  some  trade,  that 
trade  which,  by  the  advice  of  my  parents  and  my  own  inclination, 
I  chose,  was  the  profession  of  the  Law.  After  having  coin- 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  ? 

pleted  an  education  in  which,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other 
citizen  of  that  time  I  had  advantages,  and  which  of  course 
brought  with  it  the  incumbent  duty  of  manifesting  by  my  life 
that  those  extraordinary  advantages  of  education,  secured  to 
me  by  my  father,  had  not  been  worthlessly  bestowed,  —  on 
coming  into  life  after  such  great  advantages,  and  having  the 
duty  of  selecting  a  profession,  I  chose  that  of  the  Bar.  I 
closed  my  education  as  a  lawyer  with  one  of  the  most  eminent 
jurists  of  the  age,  —  Theophilus  Parsons,  of  Newburyport,  at 
that  time  a  practising  lawyer,  but  subsequently  chief  justice 
of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  Under  his  instruc 
tion  and  advice  I  closed  my  education,  and  commenced  what 
I  can  hardly  call  the  practice  of  the  law  in  the  city  of  Boston. 

"At  that  time,  though  I  cannot  say  I  was  friendless,  yet 
my  circumstances  were  not  independent.  My  father  was  then 
in  a  situation  of  great  responsibility  and  notoriety  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States.  But  he  had  been  long  absent 
from  his  own  country,  and  still  continued  absent  from  that 
part  of  it  to  which  he  belonged,  and  of  which  I  was  a  native. 
I  went,  therefore,  as  a  volunteer,  an  adventurer,  to  Boston,  as 
possibly  many  of  you  whom  I  now  see  before  me  may  consider 
yourselves  as  having  come  to  Cincinnati.  I  was  without  sup 
port  of  any  kind.  I  may  say  I  was  a  stranger  in  that  city, 
although  almost  a  native  of  that  spot.  I  say  I  can  hardly  call 
it  practice,  because  for  the  space  of  one  year  from  that  time  it 
would  be  difficult  for  me  to  name  any  practice  which  I  had  to 
do.  For  two  years,  indeed,  I  can  recall  nothing  in  which  I 
was  engaged  that  may  be  termed  practice,  though  during  the 
second  year  there  were  some  symptoms  that  by  persevering 
patience  practice  might  come  in  time.  The  third  year  I  contin 
ued  this  patience  and  perseverance,  and,  having  little  to  do, 
occupied  my  time  as  well  as  I  could  in  the  study  of  those  laws 
and  institutions  which  I  have  since  been  called  to  administer. 
At  the  end  of  the  third  year  I  had  obtained  something  which 
might  be  called  practice. 

The  fourth  year  I  found  it  swelling  to  such  an  extent  that  I 
felt  no  longer  any  concern  as  to  my  future  destiny  as  a  mem- 


8  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

ber  of  that  profession.  But  in  the  midst  of  the  fourth  year, 
by  the  will  of  the  first  President  of  the  United  States,  with 
which  the  Senate  was  pleased  to  concur,  I  was  selected 
for  a  station,  not,  perhaps,  of  more  usefulness,  but  of  greater 
consequence  in  the  estimation  of  mankind,  and  sent  from  home 
on  a  mission  to  foreign  parts. 

From  that  time,  the  fourth  year  after  my  admission  to  the 
bar  of  my  native  state,  and  the  first  year  of  my  admission  to 
the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  I  was 
deprived  of  the  exercise  of  any  further  industry  or  labor  at  the 
bar  by  this  distinction ;  a  distinction  for  which  a  previous 
education  at  the  bar,  if  not  an  indispensable  qualification,  was 
at  least  a  most  useful  appendage."  * 

While  waiting  for  professional  employment,  he  was 
instinctively  drawn  into  political  discussions.  Thomas 
Paine  had  just  then  published  his  "Rights  of  Man,"  for 
which  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  Secretary  of. State,  took 
upon  himself  to  be  sponsor,  by  publishing  a  letter 
expressing  his  extreme  pleasure  "that  it  is  to  be 
reprinted  here,  and  that  something  is  at  length  to  be 
publicly  said  against  the  political  heresies  which  have 
sprung  up  among  us.  I  have  no  doubt  our  citizens 
will  rally  a  second  time  round  the  standard  of  Common 
Sense." 

Notwithstanding  the  weight  of  Jefferson's  charac 
ter,  and  the  strength  of  his  recommendation,  in  June, 
1791,  young  Adams  entered  the  lists  against  Paine 
and  his  pamphlet,  which  was  in  truth  an  encomium  on 
the  National  Assembly  of  France,  and  a  commentary 
on  'the  rights  of  man,  inferring  questionable  deduc 
tions  from  unquestionable  principles.  In  a  series  of 

*See  AYJes'  Weekly  Register,  New  Series,  vol.  xv.,  pp.  218,  219. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  9 

essays,  signed  Publicola,  published  in  the  Columbian 
Centinel,  he  states  and  controverts  successively  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  Paine's  work  ;  denies  that 
"whatever  a  whole  nation  chooses  to  do  it  has  a 
right  to  do,"  and  maintains,  in  opposition,  that 
"  nations,  no  less  than  individuals,  are  subject  to  the 
eternal  and  immutable  laws  of  justice  and  morality  ;  " 
declaring  that  Paine's  doctrine  annihilated  the  secu 
rity  of  every  man  for  his  inalienable  rights,  and  would 
lead  in  practice  to  a  hideous  despotism,  concealed 
under  the  parti-colored  garments  of  democracy.  The 
truth  of  the  views  in  these  essays  was  soon  made 
manifest  by  the  destruction  of  the  French  constitu 
tion,  so  lauded  by  Paine  and  Jefferson,  the  succeeding 
anarchy,  the  murder  of  the  French  monarch,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  military  despotism. 

In  April,  1793,  Great  Britain  declared  war  against 
France,  then  in  the  most  violent  frenzy  of  her  revolu 
tion.  In  this  war,  the  feelings  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  were  far  from  being  neutral.  The  seeds 
of  friendship  for  the  one,  and  of  enmity  towards  the 
other  belligerent,  which  the  Eevolutionary  War  had 
plentifully  scattered  through  the  whole  country,  began, 
everywhere  to  vegetate.  Private  cupidity  openly 
advocated  privateering  upon  the  commerce  of  Great 
Britain,  in  aid  of  which  commissions  were  issued 
under  the  authority  of  France.  To  counteract  the 
apparent  tendency  of  these  popular  passions,  Mr. 
Adams  published,  also  in  the  Centinel,  a  series  of 
essays,  signed  Marcellus,  exposing  the  lawlessness, 
injustice,  and  criminality,  of  such  interference  in 


10  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS, 

favor  of  one  of  the  belligerents.  "  For  if,"  he  wrote, 
"  as  the  poet,  with  more  than  poetical  truth,  has  said, 
'  war  is  murder/  the  plunder  of  private  property,  the 
pillage  of  all  the  regular  rewards  of  honest  industry 
and  laudable  enterprise,  upon  the  mere  pretence  of  a 
national  contest,  in  the  eye  of  justice  can  appear  in 
no  other  light  than  highway  robbery.  If,  however, 
some  apology  for  the  practice  is  to  be  derived  from 
the  incontrollable  law  of  necessity,  or  from  the  impe 
rious  law  of  war,  certainly  there  can  be  no  possible 
excuse  for  those  who  incur  the  guilt  without  being 
able  to  plead  the  palliation  ;  for  those  who  violate  the 
rights  of  nations  in  order  to  obtain  a  license  for  rapine 
manifestly  show  that  patriotism  is  but  the  cloak  for 
such  enterprises  ;  that  the  true  objects  are  plunder 
and  pillage  ;  and  that  to  those  engaged  in  them  it 
was  only  the  lash  of  the  executioner  which  kept 
them  in  the  observance  of  their  civil  and  political 
duties." 

After  developing  the  folly  arid  madness  of  such 
conduct  in  a  nation  whose  commerce  was  expanded 
over  the  globe,  and  which  was  "destitute  of  even  the 
defensive  apparatus  of  war,"  and  showing  that  it 
would  lead  to  general  bankruptcy,  and  endanger  even 
the  existence  of  the  nation,  he  maintained  that 
"impartial  and  unequivocal  neutrality  was  the  impe 
rious  duty  of  the  United  States."  Their  pretended 
obligation  to  take  part  in  the  war  resulting  from  * '  the 
guarantee  of  the  possessions  of  France  in  America," 
he  denied,  on  the  ground  that  either  circumstances 
had  wholly  dissolved  those  obligations,  or  they  were 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  11 

suspended  and  made  impracticable  by  the  acts  of  the 
French  government. 

The  ability  displayed  in  these  essays  attracted  the 
attention  of  Washington  and  his  cabinet,  and  the 
coincidence  of  these  views  with  their  own  was  imme 
diately  manifested  by  the  proclamation  of  neutrality. 
Their  thoughts  were  again,  soon  after,  attracted  to 
the  author,  by  a  third  series  of  essays,  published  in 
November,  1793,  in  the  Columbian  Centinel,  under 
the  signature  of  Columbus,  in  which  he  entered  the 
lists  in  defence  of  the  constituted  authorities  of  the 
United  States,  exposing  and  reprobating  the  lan 
guage  and  conduct  of  Genet,  the  minister  from  the 
French  republic,  whose  repeated  insults  upon  the  first 
magistrate  of  the  American  Union,  and  upon  the 
national  government,  had  been  as  public  and  as 
shameless  as  they  had  been  unprecedented.  For, 
after  Washington,  supported  by  the  highest  judicial 
authority  of  the  country,  had,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  denied  publicly  Genet's  authority  to 
establish  consular  courts  within  them,  and  to  issue 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  to  their  citizens,  against 
the  enemies  of  France,  he  had  the  insolence  to  appeal 
from  the  President,  and  to  deny  his  power  to  revoke 
the  exequatur  of  a  French  consul,  who,  by  a  process 
issued  from  his  own  court,  rescued,  with  an  armed 
force,  a  vessel  out  of  the  custody  of  justice. 

In  these  essays  Genet  is  denounced  as  a  dangerous 
enemy  ;  his  appeal  "  as  an  insolent  outrage  to  the  man 
who  was  deservedly  the  object  of  the  grateful  affection 
of  the  whole  people  of  America  ;  "  "  as  a  rude  attempt 


12      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

of  a  beardless  foreign  stripling,  whose  commission  from 
a  friendly  power  was  his  only  title  to  respect,  not 
supported  by  a  shadow  of  right  on  his  part,  and  not 
less  hostile  to  the  constitution  than  to  the  govern 
ment."  • 

The  violence  of  the  times,  and  the  existence  of  a 
powerful  party  in  the  United  States  ready  to  support 
the  French  minister  in  his  hostility  to  the  national 
government,  are  also  illustrated  by  the  following 
facts  :  "  That  an  American  jury  had  been  compelled 
by  the  clamor  of  a  collected  multitude  to  acquit  a 
prisoner  without  the  unanimity  required  by  law;" 
"  by  the  circulation  of  caricatures  representing  Presi 
dent  Washington  and  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
with  a  guillotine  suspended  over  their  heads  ;"  "by 
posting  upon  the  mast  of  a  French  vessel  of  war,  in 
the  harbor  of  Boston,  the  names  of  twenty  citizens, 
all  of  them  inoffensive,  and  some  of  them  personally 
respectable,  as  objects  of  detestation  to  the  crew;" 
1  'by  the  threatening,  by  an  anonymous  assassin,  to 
visit  with  inevitable  death  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  New  York,  for  expressing,  with  the  freedom  of  an 
American  citizen,  his  opinion  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  French  minister;"  and  "by  the  formation  of  a 
lengthened  chain  of  democratic  societies,  assuming  to 
themselves,  under  the  semblance  of  a  warmer  zeal 
for  the  cause  of  liberty,  to  control  the  operations  of 
the  government,  and  to  dictate  laws  to  the  coun 
try." 

The  talent  and  knowledge  of  diplomatic  relations, 
thus  displayed,  powerfully  impressed  the  administra- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  13 

tion,  and  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Adams  as  minister 
from  the  United  States  resident  at  the  Netherlands, 
by  Washington  and  his  cabinet,  was  confirmed  unan 
imously  by  the  Senate,  in  June,  1794.  At  the  request 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  he  immediately  repaired  to 
Philadelphia.  His  commission  was  delivered  to  him  on 
the  llth  of  July,  the  day  he  entered  his  twenty- eighth 
year.  He  embarked  in  September  from  Boston,  and 
in  October  arrived  in  London,  where  Messrs.  Jay  and 
Pinckney  were  then  negotiating  a  treaty  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  who  immediately 
admitted  him  to  their  deliberations.  Concerning 
this  treaty,  which  occasioned,  soon  after,  such  unex 
ampled  fury  of  opposition  in  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Adams,  at  the  time,  thus  expressed  his  opinion  :  "  The 
treaty  is  far  from  being  satisfactory  to  either  Mr.  Jay 
or  Mr.  Pinckney.  It  is  far  below  the  standard  which 
would  be  advantageous  to  the  country.  It  is  proba 
ble,  however,  the  negotiators  will  consent  to  it,  as  it 
is,  in  their  opinion,  preferable  to  a  war.  The  satis 
faction  proposed  to  be  made  to  the  United  States 
for  the  recent  depredations  on  their  commerce,  the 
principal  object  of  Jay's  mission,  is  provided  for 
in  as  ample  a  manner  as  we  could  expect.  The  deliv 
ery  of  the  posts  is  protracted  to  a  more  distant  day 
than  is  desirable.  But,  I  think,  the  compensation 
made  for  the  present  and  future  detention  of  them  will 
be  a  sufficient  equivalent.  The  commerce  with  their 
West  India  islands,  partially  opened  to  us,  will  be  of 
great  importance,  and  indemnifies  for  the  deprivation 
of  the  fur- trade  since  the  treaty  of  peace,  as  well  as 


14      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

for  the  negroes  carried  away  contrary  to  the  engage 
ments  of  the  treaty,  at  least  as  far  as  it  respects  the 
nation.  As  to  the  satisfaction  we  are  to  make,  I  think 
it  is  no  more  than  is  in  justice  due  from  us.  The 
article  which  provides  against  the  future  confiscation 
of  debts,  and  of  property  in  the  funds,  is  useful, 
because  it  is  honest.  If  its  operation  should  turn  out 
more  advantageous  to  them,  it  will  be  more  honorable 
for  us  ;  and  I  never  can  object  to  entering  formally 
into  an  obligation  to  do  that  which,  upon  every  virtu 
ous  principle,  ought  to  be  done  without  it.  As  a  treaty 
of  commerce  it  will  be  indeed  of  little  use  to  us,  and 
we  shall  never  obtain  anything  more  favorable  so  long 
as  the  principles  of  the  navigation  act  are  obstinately 
adhered  to  by  Great  Britain.  This  system  is  so  much 
a  favorite  with  the  nation  that  no  minister  would  dare 
to  depart  from  it.  Indeed,  I  have  no  idea  we  shall 
ever  obtain,  by  compact,  a  better  footing  for  our  com 
merce  with  this  country  than  that  on  which  it  now 
stands  ;  and  therefore  the  shortness  of  time,  limited 
for  the  operation  of  this  part  of  the  compact,  is,  I 
think,  beneficial  to  us." 

After  remaining  fifteen  days  in  London,  Mr.  Adams 
sailed,  on  the  30th  of  October,  for  Holland,  landed 
at  Hellevoetsluis,  and  proceeded  without  delay  to  the 
Hague. 

His  reception  as  the  representative  of  the  United 
States  had  scarcely  been  acknowledged  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  States  General,  before  Holland  was  taken 
possession  of  by  the  French,  under  Pichegru.  The 
Stadtholder  fled,  the  tree  of  liberty  was  planted,  and 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  15 

the  French  national  flag  displayed  before  the  Stadt- 
house.  The  people  were  kept  quiet  by  seventy  thou 
sand  French  soldiers.  The  Stadtholder,  the  nobil 
ity,  and  the  regencies  of  the  cities,  were  all  abolished, 
a  provincial  municipality  appointed,  and  the  country 
received  as  an  ally  of  France,  under  the  name  of  the 
Batavian  Republic  ;  the  streets  being  filled  with  tri- 
colored  cockades,  and  resounding  with  the  Carmag 
nole,  or  the  Marseilles  Hymn.  Mr.  Adams  was  vis 
ited  by  the  representatives  of  the  French  people,  and 
recognized  as  the  minister  of  a  nation  free  like  them 
selves,  with  whom  the  most  fraternal  relations  should 
be  maintained.  In  response,  he  assured  them  of  the 
attachment  of  his  fellow-citizens  for  the  French  peo 
ple,  who  felt  grateful  for  the  obligations  they  were 
under  to  the  French  nation,  and  closed  with  demand 
ing  safety  and  protection  for  all  American  persons  and 
property  in  the  country. 

Popular  societies  in  Holland  were  among  the  most 
efficient  means  of  the  success  of  the  revolution,  as 
they  had  been  in  France.  Mr.  Adams,  being  solicited 
to  join  one  of  them,  declined,  considering  it  improper 
in  a  stranger  to  take  part  personally  in  the  politics  of 
the  country.  "  It  was/'  he  wrote,  "unnecessary  for 
me  to  look  out  for  motives  to  justify  my  refusal.  I 
have  an  aversion  to  political  popular  societies  in  gen 
eral.  To  destroy  an  established  power,  they  are 
undoubtedly  an  efficacious  instrument,  but  in  their 
nature  they  are  fit  for  nothing  else.  The  reign  of 
Robespierre  has  shown  what  use  they  make  of  power 
when  they  obtain  it." 


16  MEMOIR     OP    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

The  station  of  Mr.  Adams  at  the  Hague  gave  him 
opportunities  to  acquaint  himself  with  parties  and  per 
sons,  their  motives  and  principles,  of  which  he  availed 
himself  with  characteristic  industry. 

In  October,  1795,  he  was  directed  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  to  repair  to  England,  and  arriving  there 
in  November  ensuing,  he  found  he  was  appointed  to 
exchange  ratifications  of  Mr.  Jay's  treaty  with  the 
British  government.  This  mission  was  far  from  pleas 
ant  to  him.  In  effect  it  was  merely  ministerial,  and 
so  far  as  it  might  result  in  negotiation,  he  did  not 
anticipate  any  good.  "I  am  convinced/'  he  wrote, 
"  that  Mr.  Jay  did  everything  that  was  to  be  clone  ; 
that  he  did  so  much  affords  me  a  proof  of  the  wisdom 
with  which  he  conducted  the  business,  that  grows 
stronger  the  more  I  see.  But  circumstances  will  do 
more  than  any  negotiation.  The  pride  of  Britain 
itself  must  bend  to  the  course  of  events.  The  rigor  of 
her  system"  already  begins  to  relax,  and  one  year  of 
war  to  her  and  peace  to  us  will  be  more  favorable  to 
our  interests,  and  to  the  final  establishment  of  our 
principles,  than  could  possibly  be  effected  by  twenty 
years  of  negotiation  or  war." 

While  in  England,  the  duties  of  his  appointment 
brought  him  into  frequent  intercourse  with  Lord  Gren- 
ville  and  other  leading  British  statesmen  of  the  period. 
After  the  objects  of  his  mission  had  been  acceptably 
fulfilled,  he  received  authority  from  his  government  to 
return  to  his  station,  at  the  Hague,  in  May,  1796. 
His  time  was  there  devoted  to  official  duties,  to  the 
claims  of  general  society,  to  an  extensive  correspond- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  17 

ence,  the  study  of  works  on  diplomacy,  the  English 
and  Latin  classics,  and  the  Dutch  and  Italian  lan 
guages. 

In  August,  1796,  he  received  from  the  Secretary 
of  State  an  appointment  as  minister  plenipotentiary 
to  the  Court  of  Portugal,  with  directions  not  to  quit 
the  Hague  until  he  received  further  instructions. 
These  did  not  reach  him  until  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Mur 
ray,  his  successor,  in  July,  1797,  when  he  took  his 
departure  for  England.  Truthfulness  to  himself,  not 
less  than  to  the  public,  characterized  Mr.  Adams. 
Every  day  had  its  assigned  object,  which  every  hour 
successively,  as  far  as  possible,  fulfilled.  Daily  he 
called  himself  to  account  for  what  he  had  done  or 
omitted.  At  the  close  of  every  month  and  year  he 
submitted  himself  to  retrospection  concerning  fulfilled 
or  neglected  duties,  judging  himself  by  a  severe 
standard. 

On  arriving  in  London,  he  found  his  appointment 
to  the  Court  of  Portugal  superseded  by  another  to  the 
Court  of  Berlin,  with  directions  not  to  proceed  on  the 
mission  until  he  had  received  the  necessary  instruc 
tions.  While  waiting  for  these,  an  engagement  he 
had  formed  during  a  former  visit  to  England  was  ful 
filled,  by  his  marriage,  on  the  26th  of  July,  1797, 
with  Louisa  Catharine  Johnson,  the  daughter  of 
Joshua  Johnson,  American  consul  at  London  ;  a  lady 
highly  qualified  to  support  and  to  ornament  the  vari 
ous  elevated  stations  he  was  destined  to  fill.  Mr. 
Adams  was  reluctant  to  accept  the  appointment  to 
Berlin,  as  it  had  been  made  by  his  father,  who  had 


18  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS. 

succeeded  Washington  as  President  of  the  United 
States.  "I  have  submitted  to  take  it,"  he  immedi 
ately  wrote  to  his  mother,  "notwithstanding  my 
former  declaration  to  you  and  my  father,  made  a 
short  time  ago.  I  have  broken  a  resolution  I  had 
deliberately  formed,  and  that  I  still  think  right ;  but 
I  never  acted  more  reluctantly.  The  tenure  by  which 
I  am  for  the  future  to  hold  an  office  of  such  a  nature 
will  take  from  me  the  satisfaction  I  have  enjoyed, 
hitherto,  in  considering  myself  a  public  servant." 
To  his  father  he  wrote  :  "I  cannot,  and  ought  not,  to 
discuss  with  you  the  propriety  of  the  measure.  I 
have  undertaken  the  duty,  and  will  discharge  it  to  the 
best  of  my  ability,  and  will  complain  no  further.  But 
I  most  earnestly  entreat  that  whenever  there  shall  be 
deemed  no  further  occasion  for  a  minister  at  Berlin  I 
may  be  recalled,  and  that  no  nomination  of  me  to  any 
other  public  office  whatever  may  ever  again  proceed 
from  the  present  chief  magistrate."  His  continuance 
in  a  diplomatic  career  had  been  repeatedly  urged  by 
President  Washington.  In  August,  1795,  he  wrote 
to  John  Adams,  then  Yice-President :  "  Your  son  must 
not  think  of  retiring  from  the  walk  he  is  now  in  (min 
ister  from  the  United  States  to  Holland).  His  pros 
pects,  if  he  pursues  it,  are  fair ;  and  I  shall  be  much 
mistaken  if,  in  as  short  a  time  as  can  well  be  ex 
pected,  he  is  not  found  at  the  head  of  the  diplomatic 
corps,  let  the  government  be  administered  by  whom 
soever  the  people  may  choose."  In  a  letter  dated 
20th  February,  1797,  addressed  to  Mr.  Adams,  just 
before  his  entrance  on  the  Presidency,  Washington 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  19 

again  wrote  :  "  I  have  a  strong  hope  that  you  will  not 
withhold  merited  promotion  to  Mr.  John  Quincy 
Adams  because  he  is  your  son.  For,  without  intend 
ing  to  compliment  the  father  or  the  mother,  or  to  cen 
sure  any  others,  I  give  it  as  my  decided  opinion  that 
Mr.  Adams  is  the  most  valuable  public  character  we 
have  abroad,  and  that  he  will  prove  himself  to  be  the 
ablest  of  all  our  diplomatic  corps.  If  he  was  now  to 
be  brought  into  that  line,  or  into  any  other  public 
walk,  I  would  not,  on  the  principles  which  have  regu 
lated  my  own  conduct,  disapprove  the  caution  hinted 
at  in  the  letter.  But  he  is  already  entered  ;  the  pub 
lic,  more  and  more,  as  he  is  known,  are  appreciating 
his  talents  and  worth  ;  and  his  country  would  sustain 
a  loss  if  these  are  checked  by  over  delicacy  on  your 
part."* 

This  letter,  communicated  to  Mr.  Adams  by  his 
mother,  induced  him  reluctantly  to  acquiesce  in  this 
appointment.  In  reply,  he  wrote:  "I  know  with 
what  delight  your  truly  maternal  heart  has  received 
every  testimonial  of  Washington's  favorable  voice.  It 
is  among  the  most  precious  gratifications  of  my  life  to 
reflect  upon  the  pleasure  which  my  conduct  has  given 
to  my  parents.  The  terms,  indeed,  in  which  such  a 
character  as  Washington  has  repeatedly  expressed 
himself  concerning  me,  have  left  me  nothing  to  wish, 
if  they  did  not  alarm  me  by  their  very  strength. 
How  much,  my  dear  mother,  is  required  of  me,  to 
support  and  justify  such  a  judgment  as  that  which 
you  have  copied  into  your  letter  !  " 

*  Sparks'  Life  and  Writings  cf  Washington,  XL,  p.  56,  and  p.  188. 


20  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Adams  embarked  from  Gravesend, 
and  landed  at  Hamburg  on  the  26th  of  October,  and 
reached  Berlin  early  in  November.  He  was  received, 
with  gratifying  expressions  of  regard  for  the  United 
States,  by  Count  Finkenstein,  the  prime  minister ; 
but,  owing  to  the  king's  illness,  an  audience  could  not 
be  granted.  After  his  death  Mr.  Adams  was  admitted 
to  presentation  and  audience  by  his  successor.  New 
credentials,  which  were  required,  did  not  arrive  until 
July,  1798,  when  Mr.  Adams  was  fully  accredited. 

The  absence  of  the  king  from  Berlin  prevented  the 
renewal  of  the  treaty,  which  was  not  commenced  until 
the  ensuing  autumn,  nor  completed,  in  consequence 
of  incidental  delays,  until  the  llth  of  July,  1799, 
when  it  was  signed  by  all  the  king's  ministers  and 
Mr.  Adams,  and  was  afterwards  unanimously  approved 
by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  object  of 
his  mission  being  fulfilled,  Mr.  Adams  immediately 
wrote  to  his  father  that  he  should,  at  any  time,  acqui 
esce  in  his  recall.  While  waiting  for  the  decision  of 
his  government,  he  travelled,  with  his  family,  in 
Saxony  and  Bohemia,  and,  in  the  ensuing  summer, 
into  Silesia.  His  observations  during  this  tour  were 
embodied  in  letters  to  his  brother,  Thomas  B.  Adam?, 
and  were  published,  without  his  authority,  in  Phila 
delphia,  and  subsequently  in  England.  The  won* 
contains  interesting  sketches  of  Silesian  life  and  man 
ners,  and  important  accounts  of  manufactures,  mines, 
and  localities  ;  concluding  with  elaborate  historical, 
geographical,  and  statistical  statements  of  the  prov 
ince. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  21 

The  following  passages  are  characteristic,  and  indi 
cate  the  general  spirit  of  the  work.  "  Count  Finken- 
stein  resides  in  this  vicinity.  He  was  formerly 
president  of  the  judicial  tribunal  at  Custrin,  but  was 
dismissed  by  Frederic  II.,  on  the  occasion  of  the  mil 
ler  Arnold's  famous  lawsuit ;  an  instance  in  which  the 
great  king,  from  mere  love  of  justice,  committed  the 
greatest  injustice  that  ever  cast  a  shade  upon  his 
character.  His  anxiety,  upon  that  occasion,  to  prove 
to  the  world  that  in  his  courts  of  justice  the  beggar 
should  be  upon  the  same  footing  as  the  prince,  made 
him  forget  that  in  substantial  justice  the  maxim  ought 
to  bear  alike  on  both  sides,  and  that  the  prince  should 
obtain  his  right  as  much  as  the  beggar.  Count  Fink- 
enstein  and  several  other  judges  of  the  court  at  Cus 
trin,  together  with  the  High  Chancellor  Fiirst,  were 
all  dismissed  from  their  places,  for  doing  their  duty, 
and  persisting  in  it,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  king, 
who,  substituting  his  ideas  of  natural  equity  in  place 
of  the  prescriptions  of  positive  law,  treated  them  with 
the  utmost  severity,  for  conduct  which  ought  to  have 
received  his  fullest  approbation." 

"Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of  Watts,  has  bestowed 
a  just  and  exalted  encomium  upon  him  for  not  dis 
daining  to  descend  from  the  pride  of  genius  and  the 
dignity  of  science  to  write  for  the  wants  and  the  capa 
cities  of  children.  '  Every  man  acquainted,'  says  he, 
'  with  the  common  principles  of  human  action,  wall 
look  with  veneration  on  the  writer  who  is  at  one  time 
combating  Locke,  and  at  another  making  a  catechism 
for  children  in  their  fourth  year.'  But  how  much 


22  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

greater  still  is  the  tribute  of  admiration,  irresistibly 
drawn  from  us,  when  we  behold  an  absolute  monarch, 
the  greatest  general  of  his  age,  eminent  as  a  writer  in 
the  highest  departments  of  literature,  descending,  in  a 
manner,  to  teach  the  alphabet  to  the  children  of  his 
kingdom  ;  bestowing  his  care,  his  persevering  assi 
duity,  his  influence  and  his  power,  in  diffusing  plain 
and  useful  knowledge  among  his  subjects,  in  opening 
to  their  minds  the  first  and  most  important  page  of 
the  book  of  science,  in  filling  the  whole  atmosphere 
they  breathed  with  that  intellectual  fragrance  which 
had  before  been  imprisoned  in  the  vials  of  learning,  or 
enclosed  within  the  gardens  of  wealth!  Immortal 
Frederic  !  when  seated  on  the  throne  of  Prussia,  with 
kneeling  millions  at  thy  feet,  thou  wert  only  a  king ; 
on  the  fields  of  Lutzen,  of  Torndoff,  of  Kosbach,  of 
so  many  other  scenes  of  human  blood  and  anguish, 
thou  wert  only  a  hero  ;  even  in  thy  rare  and  glori 
ous  converse  with  the  muses  and  with  science  thou 
wert  only  a  philosopher,  a  historian,  a  poet ;  bat  in 
this  generous  ardor,  this  active,  enlightened  zeal  for 
the  education  of  thy  people,  thou  wert  truly  great  — 
the  father  of  thy  country  —  the  benefactor  of  man 
kind  !" 

In  1801,  Mr.  Adams  received  from  his  government 
permission  to  return  home.  After  taking  leave  with 
the  customary  formalities,  he  left  Berlin,  sailed  from 
Hamburg,  and  on  the  4th  of  September,  1801,  arrived 
in  the  United  States.  During  his  residence  in  Berlin 
his  time  was  devoted  to  official  labor  and  intellectual 
improvement ;  yet  his  letters  show  that  he  was  seldom. 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  23 

if  ever,  self-satisfied,  being  filled  with  aspirations  after 
something  higher  and  better  than  he  could  accomplish. 
His  translations,  at  this  period,  embraced  many  satires 
of  Juvenal,  and  Wieland's  Oberon  from  the  original, 
into  English  verse  :  the  last  he  intended  for  the 
press,  had  it  not  been  superseded  by  the  version  of 
Sotheby.  He  also  translated  from  the  German  a 
treatise,  by  Gentz,  on  the  origin  and  principles  of  the 
American  Ke volution,  which  he  finished  and  trans 
mitted  to  the  United  States  for  publication,  eulogizing 
it  ' c  as  one  of  the  clearest  accounts  that  exist  of  the 
rise  and  progress  of  the  American  Revolution,  in  so 
small  a  compass ;  rescuing  it  from  the  disgraceful 
imputation  of  its  having  proceeded  from  the  same 
principles,  and  of  its  being  conducted  in  the  same 
spirit,  as  that  of  France.  This  error  has  nowhere 
been  more  frequently  repeated,  nowhere  been  of  more 
pernicious  tendency,  than  in  America  itself." 

The  last  years  of  Mr.  Adams'  residence  at  the  Court 
of  Berlin  were  painfully  affected  by  the  bitter  party 
animadversions  which  assailed  his  father's  administra 
tion,  and  which  did  not  fail  to  bring  within  the  sphere 
of  their  asperities  the  missions  he  had  himself  held  in 
Europe.  These  feelings  became  intense  on  the  pub 
lication  of  Alexander  Hamilton's  letter  "  On  the 
Public  Conduct  and  Character  of  John  Adams,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States.''  This  letter,  with  the 
divisions  in  the  cabinet  at  Washington,  occasioned  by 
the  political  friends  of  Hamilton,  excited  in  the  breast 
of  Mr.  Adams  a  spirit,  which,  from  affection  for  his 
father,  and  a  sense  of  the  injustice  done  to  him,  could 


24  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

not  be  otherwise  than  indignant.  Though  concealed, 
it  was  not  the  less  understood.  He  regarded  Mr. 
Hamilton's  letter  as  the  efficient  cause  of  his  father's 
loss  of  power,  and  attributed  its  influence  to  its  being 
circulated  at  the  eve  of  the  presidential  election,  and 
to  its  adaptation  to  awaken  prejudices  and  excite 
party  jealousies  ;  although  it  contained  nothing  that 
could  justly  shake  confidence  in  a  statesman  of  long- 
tried  experience  and  fidelity.  He  pronounced  that 
letter  as  not  only  a  full  vindication,  but  the  best  eulo- 
gium  on  his  father's  administration. 


CHAPTER    II. 

RESIDENCE     IN    BOSTON.  —  RETURNS    TO     THE    BAR. —  ELECTED    TO    THE 

SENATE      OF      MASSACHUSETTS TO     THE      SENATE     OF      THE     UNITED 

STATES. HIS    COURSE    RELATIVE    TO   THE    ATTACK    OF    THE    LEOPARD 

ON     THE     CHESAPEAKE. RESIGNS     HIS     SEAT     AS     SENATOR    OF     THE 

UNITED    STATES. APPOINTED    MINISTER   TO  RUSSIA. FINAL  SEPARA 
TION    FROM    THE   FEDERAL   PARTY. 

UNDER  the  circumstances  stated  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  Mr.  Adams  returned  to  the  United  States  in 
no  disposition  to  coalesce  with  either  division  of  the 
Federal  party.  He  regarded  it  as  fortunate  for  him 
self  that  events,  in  producing  which  he  had  no  agency, 
had  placed  him  in  a  position  free  from  any  constructive 
pledges  to  a  party  which  in  its  original  form  no  longer 
existed,  and  at  liberty  to  shape  his  future  course 
according  to  his  own  independent  views  of  private 
interest  and  public  duty.  Resuming  his  residence  in 
Boston,  and  his  place  at  the  bar  of  Massachusetts, 
under  circumstances  far  from  being  pleasant  or  encour 
aging,  after  eight  years'  employment  in  foreign  official 
stations,  he  had  old  studies  to  revise,  and  new  stat 
utes  and  recent  decisions  to  explore.  To  the  broad 
field  of  diplomacy  had  succeeded  the  intricate  and 
narrow  windings  of  special  pleading  and  local  laws. 
His  juniors  were  in  the  field  ;  by  the  failure  of  Euro 
pean  bankers  his  property  had  been  diminished  ;  he 

(25) 


26  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

had  a  family  to  support ;  yet,  neither  dispirited  nor 
complaining,  he  reentered  his  profession,  and,  devot 
ing  his  leisure  hours  to  literature  and  science,  appar 
ently  abandoned  the  political  arena,  without  manifest 
ing  a  design  or  desire  to  return  to  it.  But  he  was 
not  destined  to  remain  long  in  private  life.  At  this 
period  the  Federalists  had  lost  the  control  of  national 
affairs,  but  they  retained  their  superiority  in  Massa 
chusetts.  Their  union  as  a  party  was  not  sustained 
by  the  same  identity  of  feeling  and  view  by  which, 
in  earlier  periods,  it  had  been  characterized.  It  was 
cemented  rather  by  antipathy  to  the  prevailing  power 
than  by  any  hope  of  regaining  it.  A  division,  more 
real  than  apparent,  separated  the  friends  of  the  elder 
Adams  from  those  who,  uniting  with  Hamilton,  had 
condemned  his  policy  in  the  presidency.  The  former 
were  probably  larger  in  number ;  the  latter  had  the 
advantage  in  talent,  activity,  and  influence.  Both 
soon  united  in  placing  Mr.  Adams  in  the  Senate  of  the 
state,  without  any  solicitation  or  intimation  of  political 
coincidence  from  him.  In  this  election  the  opponents 
of  his  father's  policy  were  acquiescent  rather  than 
content.  They  knew  the  independence  and  self- 
relying  spirit  of  Mr.  Adams,  his  restiveness  in  the 
trammels  of  party,  his  disposition  to  lead  rather  than 
follow ;  and  yielded  silently  to  a  result  which  they 
could  not  prevent.  The  spirit  which  they  anticipated 
was  soon  made  evident. 

At  the  annual  organization  of  the  state  government 
it  had  been  usual  to  choose  the  members  of  the  Gov 
ernor's  Council  from  his  political  friends.  Mr. 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  27 

Adams  at  once  proposed  to  place  in  it  one  or  more  of 
his  political  opponents.  This  measure,  which  he 
maintained  was  wise  and  prudent,  wras  regarded, 
according  to  the  usual  charity  of  party  spirit,  as 
designed  to  gain  favor  with  the  Democracy,  and  was 
immediately  rejected.  In  other  instances  his  disposi 
tion  to  think  and  act  independently  of  the  Federal 
party  was  manifested,  and  wras  of  course  not  acceptable 
to  its  leaders. 

In  November  he  was  urged  to  accept  a  nomination 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Con 
gress.  This  he  refused,  saying  that  "he  would  not 
stand  in  the  way  of  Mr.  Quincy,"  *  who  had  been  the 
candidate  at  the  preceding  election.  This  objection 
was  immediately  removed,  by  an  assurance  of  the 
previous  determination  of  the  latter  to  decline,  and  of 
the  satisfaction  with  which  he  regarded  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Adams.  The  result  was  unsuccessful.  Out  of 
thirty -seven  hundred  votes,  William  Eustis  was  elected 
by  a  majority  of  fifty-nine.  The  newspapers  assigned 
as  the  cause  that  the  day  of  the  election  was  rainy. 
Mr.  Adams  surmised  that  it  w^as  owing  to  the  indiffer 
ence  to  his  success  of  the  leaders  of  the  old  Federal 
party,  and  remarked  on  the  occasion,  "  This  is  among 
the  thousand  proofs  how  large  a  portion  of  Federalism 
is  a  mere  fair-weather  principle,  too  weak  to  overcome 
a  shower  of  rain.  It  shows  the  degree  of  dependence 
that  can  be  placed  on  such  friends.  As  a  party  their 
adversaries  are  more  sure  and  more  earnest." 

*  The  writer  of  this  Memoir. 


28      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Ill  an  oration,  delivered  in  May  of  this  year,  before 
the  Massachusetts  Charitable  Fire  Society,  Mr.  Adams 
paid  a  just  and  feeling  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
George  Richards  Minot,  then  recently  deceased,  in 
which  the  character  of  that  historian,  the  purity  of 
his  life,  moral  worth,  and  intellectual  endowments,  are 
celebrated  with  great  fulness  and  truth.  In  Decem 
ber  he  delivered,  at  Plymouth,  an  address  commem 
orative  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  civil  year  Mr.  Adams 
had  more  than  once  indicated  his  independence  of 
party,  and  his  settled  purpose  of  thinking  and  acting 
on  all  subjects  for  himself.  When,  therefore,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1803,  a  vacancy  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  occurred,  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Adams  was 
opposed  by  that  of  Timothy  Pickering,  who  was 
deemed  by  his  friends  better  entitled  to  the  office, 
from  age  and  long  familiarity  with  public  affairs.  To 
their  extreme  disappointment,  however,  after  three 
ballotings,  without  success,  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen,  and  his  election 
was  unanimously  confirmed  by  the  Senate.  In  March 
following,  another  vacancy  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  having  occurred,  Mr.  Pickering  was 
elected.  Thus,  by  a  singular  course  of  events,  two 
statesmen  were  placed  as  colleagues  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  from.  Massachusetts,  between  whom, 
from  antecedent  circumstances  and  known  want  of 
sympathy  in  political  opinion,  cordial  cooperation 
could  scarcely  be  anticipated.  Apparent  harmony  of 
principles  and  views  was,  however,  manifested.  Mr. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS.  29 

Adams  well  understood  the  delicacy  of  his  position, 
arising  from  the  ill-concealed  jealousy  of  the  Federal 
ists,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  open  dislike  of  the 
Democracy,  on  the  other.  He  considered  himself 
placed  between  two  batteries,  neither  of  which 
regarded  him  as  one  of  their  soldiers.  He  early 
adopted  two  principles,  as  rules  of  his  political  con 
duct,  from  which  he  never  deviated, — to  seek  or 
solicit  no  public  office,  and,  to  whatever  station  he 
might  be  called  by  his  country,  to  use  no  instrument 
for  success  or  advancement  but  efficient  public  service. 
In  October,  1803,  Mr.  Adams  removed  his  family 
to  Washington,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  On  the  26th  of  that  month  he  took 
ground  in  opposition  to  the  administration  upon  the 
bill  enabling  the  President  to  take  possession  of  Lou 
isiana,  and  on  which  he  voted  in  coincidence  with 
his  Federal  colleagues.  His  objection  was  to  the 
second  section,  which  provided  "that  all  the  military, 
civil  and  judicial  powers,  exercised  by  the  officers  of 
the  existing  government  of  Louisiana,  shall  be  vested 
in  such  person  and  persons,  and  shall  be  exercised  in 
such  manner,  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall 
direct."  The  transfer  of  such  a  power  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Adams  deemed  and 
maintained,  was  unconstitutional ;  and  he  called  upon 
the  supporters  of  the  bill  to  point  out  the  article,  sec 
tion,  or  paragraph,  of  the  constitution,  which  author 
ized  Congress  to  confer  it  on  the  President.  He 
regarded  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  to  be 
one  of  limited  powers ;  and  he  declared  that  he  could 


30  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

not  reconcile  it  to  his  judgment  that  the  authority 
exercised  in  this  section  was  within  the  legitimate 
powers  conferred  by  the  constitution.  Many  years 
afterwards,  when  his  vote  on  this  occasion  was  made 
a  subject  of  party  censure  and  obloquy,  in  addition 
to  the  preceding  reasons  Mr.  Adams  gave  to  the 
public  the  following  solemn  convictions  which  influ 
enced  his  course  : 

"  The  people  of  the  United  States  had  not  —  much  less  had 
the  people  of  Louisiana  —  given  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  the  power  to  form  this  union  ;  and,  until  the  consent 
of  both  people  could  be  obtained,  every  act  of  legislation  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  over  the  people  of  Louisi 
ana,  distinct  from  that  of  taking  possession  of  the  territory, 
was,  in  rny  view,  unconstitutional,  and  an  act  of  usurped 
authority.  My  opinion,  therefore,  was  that  the  sense  of  the 
people,  both  of  the  United  States  and  Louisiana,  should  be 
immediately  taken  :  of  the  first,  by  an  amendment  of  the  con 
stitution,  to  be  proposed  and  acted  upon  in  the  regular  form  ; 
and  of  the  last,  by  taking  the  votes  of  the  people  of  Louisiana 
immediately  after  possession  of  the  territory  should  be  taken 
by  the  United  States  under  the  treaty.  I  had  no  doubt  that 
the  consent  of  both  people  would  be  obtained  with  as  much 
ease  and  little  more  loss  of  time  than  it  actually  took  Congress 
to  prepare  an  act  for  the  government  of  the  territory  ;  and  I 
thought  this  course  of  proceeding-,  while  it  would  terminate 
in  the  same  result  as  the  immediate  exercise  of  un  gran  ted 
transcendental  powers  by  Congress,  would  serve  as  a  land 
mark  of  correct  principles  for  future  times,  —  as  a  memorial  of 
homage  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  civil  society,  to  the 
primitive  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and  the  unalienable  rights 
of  man." 

On  the  3d  of  the  ensuing  November  he  manifested 
his  independent  spirit  by  voting  in  favor  of  the  appro- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  31 

priation  of  eleven  millions  of  dollars  for  carrying  into 
effect  the  treaty  for  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  other  senators  of  the  Federal  party  ;  — 
a  vote  which,  many  years  afterwards,  in  consequence 
of  comments  of  party,  he  took  the  opportunity  publicly 
to  explain.  The  critical  nature  of  the  course  to  which 
he  foresaw  he  was  destined  was  thus  expressed  by 
himself:  "I  have  had  already  occasion  to  experi 
ence,  what  I  had  before  reason  to  expect,  the  danger 
of  adhering  to  my  own  principles.  The  country  is  so 
totally  given  up  to  the  spirit  of  party,  that  not  to  fol 
low  the  one  or  the  other  is  an  unexpiable  offence. 
The  worst  of  these  has  the  popular  current  in  its  favor, 
and  uses  its  triumph  with  all  the  unprincipled  fury  of 
faction  ;  while  the  other  is  waiting,  with  all  the  impa 
tience  of  revenge,  for  the  time  wrhen  its  turn  may 
come  to  oppress  and  punish  by  the  popular  favor. 
But  my  choice  is  made.  If  I  cannot  hope  to  give  sat 
isfaction  to  my  country,  I  am  at  least  determined  to 
have  the  approbation  of  my  own  reflections." 

On  the  10th  of  January,  1804,  Mr.  Adams  intro 
duced  two  resolutions  for  the  consideration  of  the 
Senate:  the  one  declaring  that  "the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  never,  in  any  manner,  delegated 
to  this  Senate  the  power  of  giving  its  legislative  con 
currence  to  any  act  imposing  taxes  upon  the  inhab 
itants  of  Louisiana  without  their  consent ;  "  the  other, 
"that,  by  concurring  in  any  act  of  legislation  for 
imposing  taxes  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana, 
without  their  consent,  this  Senate  would  assume  a 
power  unwarranted  by  the  constitution,  and  dangerous 


32  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

to  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  the  United  States/' 
After  a  debate  of  three  hours,  both  resolutions  were 
rejected,  as  he  anticipated;  only  three  senators  — 
Tracy,  of  Connecticut,  Olcott,  of  New  Hampshire,  and 
White,  of  Delaware  —  voting  with  him  in  favor  of  the 
first,  and  twenty-two  voting  in  the  negative  ;  Mr. 
Pickering,  his  colleague,  asking  to  be  excused  from 
voting,  and  Mr.  Hillhouse,  the  remaining  Federalist 
in  the  Senate,  absenting  himself,  obviously  to  avoid 
voting  :  after  which  the  last  was  unanimously  rejected. 
Concerning  his  course  on  this  occasion  Mr.  Adams 
wrote  :  "  I  have  no  doubt  of  incurring  much  censure 
and  obloquy  for  this  measure.  I  hope  I  shall  be  pre 
pared  for  and  able  to  bear  it,  from  the  consciousness 
of  my  sincerity  and  of  my  duty/' 

Mr.  Adams  alone  spoke  against  the  bill  for  the  tem 
porary  government  of  Louisiana,  which  passed  on  the 
ensuing  18th  of  February  ;  and  only  four  senators 
—  Messrs.  Hillhouse,  Olcott,  Plummer,  and  Stone  — 
voted  with  him  in  the  negative  ;  Mr.  Pickering  absent 
ing  himself  from  the  question. 

In  August,  1805,  the  corporation  of  Harvard  Col 
lege  elected  Mr.  Adams  Professor  of  Khetoric  and 
Oratory  on  the  Boylston  foundation.  After  modifi 
cations  of  the  statutes,  which  he  suggested,  were 
adopted,  he  accepted,  and  immediately  entered  upon 
a  course  of  preparatory  studies,  reviving  his  knowl 
edge  of  the  Greek,  and  making  researches  among 
English,  Latin,  and  French  writers,  relative  to  the 
objects  of  his  professorship.  In  the  ensuing  Decem 
ber,  as  a  member  of  the  Ninth  Congress,  he  took  an 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  33 

active  part  in  tlio  debates  and  measures  of  the  Sen 
ate. 

In  January,  1806,  he  was  appointed  on  a  com 
mittee,  of  which  Mr.  Smith,  of  Maryland,  was  chair 
man,  on  that  part  of  the  President's  message  "  relative 
to  the  spoliations  of  our  commerce  on  the  high  seas, 
and  the  new  principles  assumed  by  the  British  courts 
of  admiralty,  as  a  pretext  for  the  condemnation  of  oar 
vessels  in  their  prize  courts."  The  debates  in  that 
committee  resulted  in  two  resolutions,  both  offered  by 
Mr.  Adams,  adopted,  reported,  and  finally  passed  by 
the  Senate,  with  some  modifications  ;  Mr.  Pickering, 
Mr.  Hillhouse,  and  Mr.  Tracy,  the  three  Federalists 
in  the  Senate,  voting  for  them. 

British  aggressions  and  British  policy  towards  neu 
trals  were,  in  the  judgment  of  Mr.  Adams,  to  be 
resisted  at  every  hazard.  His  opinions  on  these  sub 
jects  had  been  formed  from  opportunities  which  no 
other  American  statesman  had  equally  enjoyed.  In 
1783  he  had  been  present  at  the  signature  of  the 
treaty  of  peace,  and  had  imbibed  the  opinions  and 
feelings  then  entertained  by  the  American  ministers. 
In  1795  he  had  been  engaged  in  negotiations  with 
British  statesmen,  particularly  with  Lord  Grenville. 
Their  views  in  respect  of  American  commercial  rights 
he  considered  selfish  and  insolent ;  resistance  to  them 
as  an  emanation  from  the  spirit  of  patriotism,  to  which 
others  gave  the  name  of  "prejudice,"  or  "antipa 
thy."  Of  these  opinions  and  feelings  he  made  no 
concealment ;  and  to  them  may  be  traced  the  course 
of  policy  which,  shortly  after,  separated  him  from  the 


34  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Federal  party,  and  subjected  him  temporarily  to  their 
reproaches  and  censures. 

In  June,  1806,  Mr.  Adams  was  inaugurated  Pro 
fessor  of  Oratory  in  Harvard  University,  and  during 
the  ensuing  two  years  delivered  a  course  of  lectures 
on  Rhetoric  and  Oratory,  which  have  been  published 
in  two  octavo  volumes,  and  constitute  an  enduring 
monument  of  fidelity,  laborious  research,  and  eloquent 
illustration  of  the  objects  and  duties  of  his  academic 
station.  While  engaged  in  these  labors,  an  event 
occurred  which  intensely  excited  his  feelings  as  a  man 
and  a  statesman. 

On  the  22d  of  June,  1807,  during  the  recess  of 
Congress,  an  attack  by  the  British  ship  Leopard  upon 
the  American  frigate  Chesapeake,  by  which  several 
of  her  crew  were  killed,  and  four  of  them  taken  away, 
created  surprise  and  indignation  throughout  the  Union. 
From  the  previous  state  of  his  opinions,  no  one  par 
took  more  strongly  of  these  feelings  than  Mr.  Adams. 
He  immediately  urged  his  political  friends  to  call  a 
town-meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  subject ;  but  the 
measure  was  utterly  discouraged  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Federal  party.  Soon,  however,  a  meeting  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Boston  and  the  neighboring  towns  was 
called  at  the  Statehouse  to  consider  that  outrage. 
The  meeting  was  not  numerous,  and  consisted  almost 
entirely  of  the  friends  of  the  administration.  Mr. 
Gerry  was  chosen  chairman,  and  Mr.  Adams,  who  had 
attended  it,  was  appointed  on  the  committee  to  pre 
pare  appropriate  resolutions.  These,  when  reported 
and  modified  according  to  suggestions  made  by  Mr. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  35 

Adams,  were  unanimously  adopted.  When  it  was 
intimated  to  him  that  his  course  was  regarded  as 
symptomatic  of  party  apostasy,  he  replied  that  his 
sense  of  duty  should  never  yield  to  the  pleasure  of 
party. 

Soon  after,  in  consequence  of  letters  from  a  com 
mittee  of  correspondence  at  Norfolk,  a  town-meeting 
was  called  at  Faneuil  Hall,  at  which  resolutions  were 
passed,  reported  by  a  committee  of  which  Mr.  Adams 
was  chairman.  Mr.  Otis  offered  a  resolution  calling 
on  government  for  the  protection  of  a  naval  force  ; 
but,  Mr.  Adams  objecting,  it  was  withdrawn. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1807,  Mr.  Jefferson  called 
a  special  meeting  of  Congress,  chiefly  on  account  of 
the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake.  On  this  subject  the 
discrepancy  of  the  opinions  and  views  of  Mr.  Adams 
with  those  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federal  party  were  so 
openly  manifested,  that  his  separation  from  it  was 
generally  anticipated.  He  had  now  been  a  member 
of  the  Senate  during  four  sessions,  but  had  not  been 
permitted  to  exercise  any  decided  influence  on  the 
subjects  of  debate.  Many  of  his  propositions  had 
failed  under  circumstances  which  indicated  a  disposi 
tion  to  discourage  him  from  such  attempts.  Some, 
which  on  his  motion  had  been  negatived,  had  been 
subsequently  easily  carried,  when  moved  by  members 
of  the  administration  party.  In  respect  of  the  general 
policy  of  the  country,  he  had  been  uniformly  in  a 
small  and  decreasing  minority.  His  opinion  and 
votes,  however,  had  been  oftener  in  unison  with  the 
administration  than  with  their  opponents  ;  and  he  had 


36       MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

met  with  quite  as  much  opposition  from  his  party 
friends  as  from  their  adversaries.  At  this  crisis,  how 
ever,  he  took  the  lead,  and,  immediately  on  the  deliv 
ery  of  the  President's  message,  offered  to  the  Senate 
two  resolutions.  1st.  "  That  so  much  of  the  Presi- 
ident's  message  as  related  to  the  recent  outrages  com 
mitted  by  British  armed  vessels  within  the  jurisdiction 
and  in  the  waters  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the 
legislative  provisions  which  may  be  expedient  as 
resulting  from  them,  be  referred  to  a  select  commit 
tee,  with  leave  to  report  by  bill  or  otherwise."  2d. 
"  That  so  much  of  the  said  message  as  relates  to  the 
formation  of  the  seamen  of  the  United  States  into  a 
special  militia,  for  the  purpose  of  occasional  defence 
of  the  harbors  against  sudden  attacks,  be  referred  to  a 
special  committee,  with  leave  to  report  by  bill  or  oth 


erwise." 


Both  these  resolutions  were  adopted,  and  on  the  first 
Mr.  Adams  was  appointed  chairman.  Soon  after,  in 
the  course  of  the  same  session,  Mr.  Adams  took  the 
incipient  step  on  several  important  subjects,  and  was 
appointed  chairman  of  the  committee  to  whom  they 
were  intrusted  in  each  of  them  ;  thus  manifesting  that 
he  intended  no  longer  to  take  a  subordinate  part  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  Senate,  and  that  a  disposition 
to  disappoint  him  was  no  longer  a  feeling  entertained 
by  a  majority  of  that  body. 

On  the  24th  of  November,  Mr.  Adams  reported  a 
bill  on  the  British  outrages,  and,  on  a  motion  to  strike 
out  of  it  a  section  providing  that  "  no  British  armed 
vessel  shall  be  admitted  to  enter  the  harbors  and 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  37 

waters  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States, 
except  when  forced  in  by  distress,  by  the  dangers  of 
the  sea,  or  when  charged  with  public  dispatches,  or 
coming  as  a  public  packet/'  Mr.  Adams,  with  twenty- 
five  others,  voted  in  the  negative.  Messrs.  Goodrich, 
Pickering,  and  Hillhouse,  the  only  three  Federal  sen 
ators,  alone  voted  in  the  affirmative.  On  the  final 
passage  of  the  bill,  Mr.  Adams  voted  with  the  major 
ity,  in  the  affirmative,  and  the  three  Federal  senators 
in  the  negative. 

On  the  18th  of  December,  1807,  Mr.  Jefferson  sent 
a  message  to  Congress  recommending  an  embargo. 
A  bill  in  conformity  having  been  immediately  reported, 
a  motion  was  made,  in  the  Senate,  that  the  rule  which 
required  three  different  readings  on  three  different 
days  should  be  suspended  for  three  days.  Violent 
debates  ensued.  On  the  vote  to  suspend,  Mr.  Adams 
voted  in  the  affirmative.  His  colleague  and  every 
other  Federalist  voted  in  the  negative. 

On  the  final  passage  of  the  bill  laying  the  embargo, 
and  on  the  subject  of  British  aggressions,  Mr.  Adams 
again  repeatedly  separated  from  his  colleagues  and 
the  other  members  of  the  Federal  party,  and  voted  in 
coincidence  with  the  administration. 

Newspaper  asperities  and  severities-  in  debate 
ensued,  which  he  supported,  as  he  averred,  in  the 
consciousness  that  the  course  of  the  administration 
was  the  only  safe  one  for  his  country,  and  in  the 
belief  that  it  would  be  justified  by  events,  and  receive 
the  sanction  of  future  times.  His  course  had  been, 
however',  opposite  to  that  of  the  other  Federal  mem- 


38       MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

bers  iii  both  houses  of  Congress.  On  a  subject  sc 
momentous  to  the  commercial  states,  his  colleague, 
Mr.  Pickering,  thought  proper  to  justify  to  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  the  course  and  motives  of  the  Fed 
eral  party,  and  on  the  16th  of  February,  1808, 
addressed  a  letter  to  James  Sullivan,  Governor  of  that 
commonwealth,  stating  what  papers  "had  been  sub 
mitted  to  Congress  by  the  President  in  justification  of 
the  embargo,"  and  endeavored  to  show,  by  facts  and 
reasonings,  that  the  measure  had  been  passed  "  with 
out  sufficient  motive  or  legitimate  object ;  that  the 
*avowed  dangers  were  imaginary  and  assumed  ;  and 
that  the  real  motives  for  it  were  contained  in  those 
French  dispatches  which  had  been  confidentially  sub 
mitted  to  Congress,  and  withdrawn  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
in  which  the  French  emperor  had  declared  that  he 
will  have  no  neutrals;  "  that  the  embargo  was  "a 
substitute — ^a  mild  compliance  with  this  harsh  de 
mand  ; "  that  he  (Mr.  Pickering)  had  reason  to 
believe  that  the  President  contemplated  its  continu 
ance  until  the  French  emperor  repealed  his  decrees. 
He  concluded  by  asserting  that  an  embargo  was  not 
necessary  to  the  safety  of  our  seamen,  our  vessels,  or 
our  merchandise,  and  was  calculated  to  mislead  the 
public  mind  to  the  public  ruin. 

This  letter,  though  intended  for  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  was  not  communicated  to  it,  the 
political  path  of  Governor  Sullivan  not  being  coinci 
dent  with  that  of  Colonel  Pickering.  But  it  was  soon 
published  by  a  friend  of  the  writer.  In  a  letter  to 
Harrison  G.  Otis,  on  the  31st  of  March,  1808,  Mr 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS.  39 

Adams  published  a  reply,  stating  that  Mr.  Pickering, 
in  enumerating  the  pretences  (for  he  thinks  there 
were  no  causes)  for  the  embargo,  totally  omitted  the 
British  orders  in  council,  which,  although  not  made 
the  subject  of  special  communication  by  the  President, 
had  been  published  in  the  National  Intelligencer  ante 
cedent  to  the  embargo,  the  sweeping  tendency  of 
whose  effects  formed,  to  his  understanding,  a  powerful 
motive,  and  together  with  the  papers  a  decisive  one, 
for  assenting  to  the  embargo  ;  a  measure  which  he 
regarded  as  "  the  only  shelter  from  the  tempest,  the 
last  refuge  of  our  violated  peace/'  He  adds  :  "  The 
most  serious  elfect  of  Mr.  Pickering's  letter  is  its 
tendency  to  reconcile  the  commercial  states  to  the 
servitude  of  British  protection,  and  war  with  all  the 
rest  of  Europe/'  Regarding  it  as  a  proposition  to 
strike  the  standard  of  the  nation,  he  proceeded  to 
investigate  the  claims  of  Great  Britain  in  respect  of 
impressment,  and  to  her  denying  neutrals  the  right  of 
any  commerce  with  her  enemies  and  their  colonies, 
which  was  not  allowed  in  time  of  peace.  This  result 
of  the  rule  of  1756,  he  asserted,  was  "in  itself  and 
its  consequences  one  of  the  deadliest  poisons  in  which 
it  was  possible  for  Great  Britain  to  tinge  the  weapons 
of  her  hostility/'  The  decrees  of  France  and  Spain, 
by  which  every  neutral  vessel  which  submitted  to  Eng 
lish  search  was  declared  "denationalized,"  and  became 
English  property,  though  cruel  in  execution,  and  too 
foolish  and  absurd  to  be  refuted,  were  but  the  rea 
soning  of  British  jurists,  and  the  simple  application 
to  the  circumstances  and  powers  of  France  of  the  rule 


iO  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

of  the  war  of  1756.  Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  tc 
state  and  reason  upon  other  aggressions  of  Great  Bri 
tain  on  our  commerce,  and  asserted  that  "between 
unqualified  submission  and  offensive  resistance  against 
the  war  declared  against  American  commerce  by  the 
concurring  decrees  of  all  the  belligerent  powers,  the 
embargo  had  been  adopted ;  and  having  the  double 
tendency  of  promoting  peace  and  preparing  for  war, 
in  its  operation  is  the  great  advantage  which  more 
than  outweighs  all  its  evils." 

A  course  thus  independent,  and  in  harmony  with 
the  policy  of  the  administration,  caused  Mr.  Adams  to 
become  obnoxious  to  suspicions  inevitably  incident  to 
every  man  who,  in  critical  periods,  amid  party  strug 
gles,  changes  his  political  relations.  Of  the  dissatis 
faction  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  Mr.  Adams 
received  an  immediate  proof.  His  senatorial  term 
would  expire  on  the  3d  of  March,  1809.  To  indicate 
their  disapprobation  of  his  course,  they  anticipated 
the  time  of  electing  a  senator  of  the  United  States, 
which,  according  to  usage,  would  have  been  in  the 
legislative  session  of  that  year.  James  Lloyd  was 
chosen  senator  from  Massachusetts  by  a  vote  of  two 
hundred  and  forty-eight  over  two  hundred  and  thir 
teen  for  Mr.  Adams,  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  of  twenty-one  over  seventeen,  in  the  Senate. 
On  the  same  day  anti-embargo  resolutions  were  passed 
in  both  branches  by  like  majorities. 

The  next  day  Mr.  Adams  addressed  a  letter  to  that 
Legislature,  in  which  he  stated  that  it  had  been  his 
endeavor,  deeming  it  his  duty,  to  support  the  admin- 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCT    ADAMS.  41 

istration  of  the  general  government  in  all  necessary 
measures  to  preserve  the  persons  and  property  of  our 
citizens  from  depredation,  and  to  vindicate  the  rights 
essential  to  the  independence  of  our  country  ;  that 
certain  resolutions  having  passed  the  Legislature, 
expressing  disapprobation  of  measures  to  which,  under 
these  motives,  he  had  given  assent,  and  which  he  con 
sidered  as  enjoining  upon  the  representatives  of  the 
state  in  Congress  a  sort  of  opposition  to  the  national 
administration  in  which,  consistently  with  his  princi 
ples,  he  could  not  concur,  he,  therefore,  to  give  the 
Legislature  an  opportunity  to  place  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  a  member  whose  views  might  be 
more  coincident  with  those  they  entertained,  resigned 
his  seat  in  that  body.  James  Lloyd  wras  immediately 
chosen  by  the  Legislature  to  take  the  seat  thus  vacated. 
In  the  midst  of  these  political  agitations  Mr.  Adams 
was  constantly  employed  in  "writing  and  delivering 
lectures,  as  Professor  of  Rhetoric,  and  in  pursuing  his 
studies  of  the  Greek  language  and  the  science  of  astron 
omy.  During  the  ensuing  summer,  the  neglect  or  with 
drawal  of  some  former  friends,  and  the  open  asperities 
of  others,  were  often  trying  to  his  feelings.  Rumors 
were  circulated  of  promises  made  or  of  expectations 
held  out  to  him  by  the  administration  ;  and,  although 
he  unequivocally  denied  their  truth,  belief  in  them 
was  in  accordance  with  the  party  passions  of  the 
moment,  and  was  diligently  inculcated  on  the  popular 
mind  by  pamphlets  and  newspapers.  Also  in  the 
summer  and  winter  of  1808  he  had  to  support  an 
oppressive  weight  of  obloquy,  from  which  he  had  no 


42       MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

relief,  as  lie  asserted,  but  an  unshaken  confidence  that 
his  course  had  been  coincident  with  the  true  interests 
of  his  country,  and  would  finally  be  approved  by  it. 
In  the  winter  of  1809  he  attended  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  at  Washington,  and  while  there* 
first  received  from  Mr.  Madison,  two  days  after  his 
inauguration  as  President  of  the  United  States,  an 
intimation  of  his  intention  to  offer  him  the  appoint 
ment  of  minister  plenipotentiary  to  St.  Petersburg. 
When  this  nomination  and  the  concurrence  of  the 
Senate  became  public,  it  was  seized  and  commented 
upon  as  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  motives  which 
had  occasioned  the  change  in  his  political  course,  and 
was  made  the  subject  of  severe  animadversions  in  all 
the  forms  in  which  indignant  partisans  are  accustomed 
to  express  censure  and  reproach.  This  appointment 
his  political  adversaries  announced  as  at  once  a  proof 
and  the  reward  of  his  apostasy.  Such  insinuations 
were  felt  by  Mr.  Adams  as  an  insupportable  wrong. 
For  seven  years  he  had  previously  represented  his 
country  at  foreign  courts,  in  stations  to  which  he 
had  been  first  appointed  by  Washington  himself; 
who  had  declared  that  he  must  not  think  of  retiring 
from  the  diplomatic  line,  and  pronounced  him  the 
ablest,  and  destined  ultimately  to  become  the  head, 
of  the  diplomatic  corps.*  Under  these  circum 
stances  he  felt  that  even  party  spirit  itself  might  have 
spared  towards  him  this  reproach,  and  have  recog 
nized  higher  motives  than  seeking  and  receiving 
reward  for  party  services.  Actuated  by  this  sense  of 

*  See  pages  18  and  19. 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  43 

wrong,  while  preparing  for  his  departure  on  the  mis 
sion  to  Russia,  he  issued  from  the  press  a  series  of 
strictures,  at  once  severe  and  vindictive,  on  the  policy 
of  the  Federal  leaders,  in  the  form  of  a  review  of  the 
writings  of  Fisher  Ames  ;  which  were  regarded  by 
the  public,  and  probably  intended  by  himself,  as  an 
evidence  of  irreconcilable  abandonment  of  the  party 
to  which  he  had  formerly  belonged,  and  a  permanent 
adhesion  to  that  of  the  national  administration. 


CHAPTER    III 

VOYAGE. ARRIVAL     AT     ST.      PETERSBURG. PRESENTATION      TO      THE 

EMPEROR. RESIDENCE      AT      THE      IMPERIAL      COURT. DIPLOMATIC 

INTERVIEWS. PRIVATE     STUDIES. APPOINTED     ONE     OF    THE    COM 
MISSIONERS    TO    TREAT    FOR    PEACE    WITH    GREAT    BRITAIN. LEAVES 

RUSSIA. 

AFTER  resigning  his  professorship  at  Harvard  Uni 
versity,  Mr.  Adams  embarked  from  Boston,  with  Mrs. 
Adams  and  his  youngest  son,  on  the  5th  of  August, 
1809,  in  a  merchant  ship,  bound  to  St.  Petersburg. 
During  a  boisterous  and  tedious  voyage  his  classical 
and  diplomatic  studies  were  pursued  with  character 
istic  assiduity.  The  English  were  then  at  war  with 
Denmark  ;  and,  as  they  entered  the  Baltic,  a  British 
cruiser  sent  an  officer  to  examine  their  papers.  The 
same  day  they  were  boarded  by  a  Danish  officer,  who 
ordered  the  ship  to  Christiansand.  The  captain  thought 
it  prudent  to  refuse,  and  to  seek  shelter  from  an  equi 
noctial  gale  in  the  harbor  of  Flecknoe.  The  papers 
of  the  ship  and  Mr.  Adams'  commission  were  exam 
ined,  and  he  afterwards  went  up  to  Christiansand, 
where  he  found  thirty-eight  American  vessels,  which 
had  been  brought  in  by  privateers  between  the  months 
of  May  and  August,  and  were  detained  for  adjudica 
tion.  Sixteen  had  been  condemned,  and  had  appealed 

(44) 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  45 

to  the  higher  tribunals  of  the  country.  The  Ameri 
cans  thus  detained  presented  a  memorial  to  Mr.  Adams, 
to  be  forwarded  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  sight  of  so  many  of  his  countrymen  in  distress 
was  extremely  painful,  and  he  determined  to  make  an 
effort  for  their  relief,  without  waiting  for  express 
authority  from  his  government. 

On  resuming  their  voyage,  their  course  was  again 
impeded  by  a  British  squadron.  An  officer  was  sent 
on  board  by  Captain  Dundas,  of  the  Stately,  a  sixty- 
four  gun  ship,  to  examine  their  papers.  He  com 
pared  the  personal  appearance  of  each  of  the  seamen 
with  his  protection,  threatening  to  take  a  native  of 
Charlestown  because  his  person  did  not  correspond 
with  the  description,  and  finally  ordered  the  ship  to 
return  through  the  Cattegat. 

Mr.  Adams  immediately  went  on  board  the  Stately, 
showed  his  commission,  and  remonstrated  with  Captain 
Dundas,  who  referred  him  to  Admiral  Bertie,  the 
commander  of  the  squadron,  who  was  in  his  state 
room  on  the  quarter-deck.  After  a  protracted  oppo 
sition,  the  admiral  acknowledged  the  usage  of  nations, 
and,  as  an  ambassador,  permitted  him  to  pursue  his 
voyage  by  the  usual  course  through  the  sound.  From 
these  and  similar  difficulties,  Mr.  Adams  did  not  land 
at  St.  Petersburg  until  the  23d  of  October. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  empire,  Count  RomanzofF, 
received  Mr.  Adams  in  courtly  state,  and  requested  a 
copy  of  his  credential  letter,  with  an  assurance  of  the 
pleasure  his  appointment  had  given  him  personally. 
His  presentation  was  postponed,  from  the  temporary 


46  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

indisposition  of  the  emperor ;  but  he  was  immedi 
ately  invited,  by  Count  Romanzoff,  to  a  diplomatic 
dinner,  in  a  style  of  the  highest  splendor.  Among  the 
company  was  the  French  ambassador,  M.  de  Caulain- 
court,  Duke  de  Vicence,  the  foreign  ministers  then  at 
the  Russian  Court,  and  many  of  the  nobility.  In  the 
mansion  of  the  Chancellor  Mr.  Adams  had  dined  in 
1781,  as  secretary  of  Mr.  Dana,  in  the  same  splendid 
style,  with  the  Marquis  de  Yerac,  at  that  time  French 
minister  at  the  Russian  Court.  His  mind  was  more 
impressed  with  the  recollection  of  the  magnificence 
he  had  then  witnessed  on  the  same  spot,  and  with 
reflections  on  the  mutability  of  human  fortune,  than 
with  the  gorgeous  scene  around  him. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  received  Mr.  Adams  alone, 
in  his  cabinet,  and  expressed  his  pleasure  at  seeing 
him  at  St.  Petersburg.  Mr. .  Adams,  on  presenting 
his  credentials,  said  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  had  desired  him  to  express  the  hope  that  his 
mission  would  be  considered  as  a  proof  of  respect  for 
the  person  and  character  of  his  majesty,  as  an  acknowl 
edgment  of  the  many  testimonies  of  good-will  he  had 
already  given  to  the  United  States,  and  of  a  desire 
to  strengthen  commercial  relations  between  them 
and  his  provinces.  The  emperor  replied,  that,  in 
everything  depending  on  him,  he  should  be  happy  to 
contribute  to  the  increase  of  their  friendly  relations  ; 
that  it  was  his  wish  to  establish  a  just  system  of  mar 
itime  rights,  and  that  he  should  adhere  invariably  to 
those  he  had  declared.  He  then  entered  into  a  confi 
dential  exposition  of  the  obstacles  then  existing  to  a 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  47 

general  pacification,  and  of  the  policy  of  the  different 
European  powers,  and  said  that  he  considered  the  sys 
tem  of  the  United  States  towards  them  as  wise  and 
just.  Mr.  Adams  replied,  that  the  United  States, 
being  a  great  commercial  and  pacific  nation,  were 
deeply  interested  in  a  system  which  would  give  secur 
ity  to  commerce  in  time  of  war.  It  was  hoped  this 
great  blessing  to  humanity  would  be  accomplished 
by  his  imperial  majesty  himself;  and  that  the  United 
States,  by  all  means  consistent  with  their  peace,  and 
their  separation  from  the  political  system  of  Europe, 
would  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  liberal  princi 
ples  to  which  his  majesty  had  expressed  so  strong 
and  just  an  attachment.  The  emperor  replied,  that 
between  Russia  and  the  United  States  there  could  be 
no  interference  of  interests,  no  cause  for  dissension  ; 
but  that,  by  means  of  commerce,  the  two  states  might 
be  greatly  useful  to  each  other  ;  and  his  desire  was  to 
give  the  greatest  extension  and  facility  to  these  means 
of  mutual  interest.  Passing  to  other  topics,  he  made 
many  inquiries  relative  to  the  cities  of  the  United 
States. 

The  empress  and  the  empress  mother  each  gave 
Mr.  Adams  a  private  audience  ;  and,  after  Mrs.  Adams 
had  also  been  presented  to  the  imperial  family,  they 
were  invited  to  a  succession  of  splendid  entertain 
ments.  "  The  formalities  of  'these  court  presenta 
tions,"  Mr.  Adams  remarked,  "are  so  trifling  and 
insignificant  in  themselves,  and  so  important  in  the 
eyes  of  princes  and  courtiers,  that  they  are  much 
more  embarrassing  to  an  American  than  business  of 


48      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

greater  importance.  It  is  not  safe  or  prudent  to 
despise  them,  nor  practicable  for  a  person  of  rational 
understanding  to  value  them." 

As  the  balls  and  parties  given  by  the  emperor,  the 
foreign  ministers,  and  the  nobility,  did  not  usually 
terminate  until  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  they  so 
essentially  interfered  with  the  studies  and  official 
engagements  of  Mr.  Adams,  that  he  determined,  as 
far  as  his  station  permitted,  to  relinquish  attending 
them. 

In  December  he  requested  the  Chancellor  to  solicit 
the  emperor  to  interpose  his  good  offices  with  the 
Danish  government  for  the  restoration  of  American 
property  sequestrated  in  the  ports  of  Holstein.  Count 
Eomanzoff,  in  reply,  stated  that  the  emperor  took 
great  pleasure  in  complying  with  that  request,  and 
was  gratified  by  this  opportunity  to  show  his  friendly 
disposition  towards  the  United  States,  and  immedi 
ately  ordered  the  Chancellor  to  represent  to  the  Danish 
government  the  wish  of  the  emperor  that  the  Amer 
ican  property  might  be  examined  and  restored  as 
soon  as  possible.  The  Danish  government  acceded 
at  once  to  the  emperor's  desire  ;  and  the  effect  of 
his  interposition  was  gratefully  acknowledged  by  the 
Americans  whose  property  was  liberated. 

The  residence  of  Mr.  Adams  in  Russia  wTas  during 
an  eventful  period.  The  Emperor  Alexander  was  at 
first  endeavoring  to  avoid  a  collision  with  Bonaparte, 
by  yielding  to  his  policy  ;  and  afterwards,  on  his  inva 
sion,  was  engaged  in  driving  him  out  of  Russia,  bereft 
of  his  army  and  continental  influence.  During  these 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  49 

years  the  release  or  relief  of  American  vessels  and 
seamen  from  the  effects  of  the  French  emperor's  Ber 
lin  and  Milan  decrees,  and  from  other  seizures  and 
sequestrations,  were  the  chief  objects  to  which  Mr. 
Adams  directed  his  attention. 

His  subsequent  attempts  to  establish  permanent 
commercial  relations  between  the  United  States  and 
Eussia  were  favorably  received  by  that  government. 
The  chancellor  of  the  empire,  Count  KomanzofF, 
acknowledged  the  importance  of  a  treaty  between 
Russia  and  the  United  States,  and  intimated  that  the 
only  obstacle  was  the  convulsed  state  of  opinion  at  that 
period  throughout  the  commercial  world,  which  was 
such  that  "  it  hardly  seemed  possible  to  agree  to  any 
thing  which  had  common  sense  in  it."  Count  Ro- 
manzoff  conducted  towards  Mr.  Adams  not  only  with 
official  respect,  but  with  cordiality.  On  one  occasion 
he  transmitted  to  him  by  his  private  secretary  a 
work  relative  to  an  armed  neutrality,  which  was  pre 
paring  under  his  auspices  for  publication,  requesting 
the  American  minister  to  make  such  observations  upon 
it  as  he  thought  proper. 

The  courteous  manners  of  the  Emperor  Alexander, 
his  apparent  desire  to  conciliate  the  United  States, 
and  the  personal  intercourse  to  which  he  admitted 
its  representative,  were  frequently  acknowledged  by 
Mr.  Adams.  In  the  midst  of  the  splendor  of  the  Rus 
sian  Court,  and  the  magnificent  entertainments  of  its 
ministers  and  of  resident  plenipotentiaries,  some  of 
whom  expended  fifty  thousand  roubles  a  year,  and  the 
ambassador  from  the  French  emperor  over  four  hun- 

4 


50  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

dred  thousand,  he  maintained  the  simplicity  of  style 
suited  at  once  to  his  salary  and  to  the  character  of 
the  country  he  represented.  Loans  to  an  indefinite 
amount  were  proffered  to  him  by  mercantile  houses. 
These  he  uniformly  declined,  though  under  circum 
stances  of  great  temptation  to  accept  them.  "  The 
opportunities,"  he  wrote,  "of  thus  anticipating  my 
regular  income,  it  is  difficult  to  resist.  But  I  am 
determined  to  do  it.  The  whole  of  my  life  has  been 
one  continued  experience  of  the  difficulty  of  a  man's 
adhering  to  the  principle  of  living  within  his  income  ; 
the  first  and  most  important  principle  of  private  econ 
omy.  In  this  country  beyond  all  others,  and  in  my 
situation  more  than  any  other,  the  temptations  to 
expense  amount  almost  to  compulsion.  I  have  with 
stood  them  hitherto,  and  hope  for  firmness  of  charac 
ter  to  withstand  them  in  future/' 

In  connection  with  this  topic,  the  following  anec 
dote  was  related  by  Mr.  Adams  :  ' '  As  I  was  walking, 
this  morning  (in  May,  1811),  I  was  met  by  the  empe 
ror,  who  was  also  walking.  As  he  approached  he 
said,  £  Monsieur  Adams,  il  y  a  cent  ans  que  je  ne 
vous  ai  YU/  and  took  me  cordially  by  the  hand. 
After  some  common  observations,  he  asked  me  whether 
I  intended  to  take  a  house  in  the  country  this  sum 
mer.  I  said  *  No ;  that  I  had  for  some  time  that 
intention,  but  I  had  given  it  up/  —  'And  why  ?  '  said 
he.  I  was  hesitating  upon  an  answer,  when  he 
relieved  me  from  my  embarrassment  by  saying, 
'  Peut-etre  sont-ce  des  considerations  de  finance/  As 
he  said  it  in  perfect  good  humor,  and  with  a  smile,  I 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  51 

replied,  in  the  same  manner,  *  Mais,  Sire,  elles  y  sont 
pour  une  bonne  partie.'  —  'Fort  bien,'  said  he,  '  vous 
avez  raison.  II  faut  toujours  proportionner  la  depense 
a  la  irecette  ; '  a  maxim,"  remarks  Mr.  Adams,  "  wor 
thy  of  an  emperor,  though  few  emperors  practise 
upon  it." 

The  customs,  manners,  and  habits,  of  the  nobility 
and  the  people  ;  their  public  institutions,  edifices, 
monuments,  and  collections  in  the  fine  arts ;  the  over 
weening  influence  of  the  clergy,  their  power  and  polit 
ical  subserviency  ;  the  character  of  the  foreign  minis 
ters,  and  the  policy  of  the  courts  they  represented, 
were  carefully  observed  and  noted  down  for  future 
thought  and  illustration. 

Nor  were  his  researches  restricted  to  subjects  of 
diplomatic  duty,  or  to  objects  immediately  connected 
with  his  foreign  relations.  lie  studied  the  language 
and  history  of  Russia,  the  course  and  usages  of  its 
trade,  especially  in  relation  to  China,  and  made  labo 
rious  inquries  into  the  proportions  of  Russian,  English, 
and  French  weights,  measures,  and  coins.  In  obtain 
ing  a  minute  accuracy  in  these  proportions,  he  em 
ployed  many  hours  ;  on  which  he  observed,  "  I  fear  I 
shall  never  attain  them,  and  the  usefulness  of  which 
is  at  least  problematical;*  but  *  Trahit  sua  quemque 
ipsa  voluntas  ;  '  my  studies  generally  command  me  — 
I  seldom  control  them." 

The  progress  of  the  seasons  in  Russia,  the  rising 
and  the  setting  of  the  sun,  w^ere  daily  noted,  as  also 

*  The  Report  of  Mr.  Adams,  when  Secretary  of  State,  on  -weights  and  meas 
ures,  at  the  call  of  Congress,  sufficiently  evidences  the  ultimate  usefulness  of 
these  researches. 


52  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  variation  of  the  climate,  by  the  thermometer.  His 
thirst  for  knowledge,  and  his  desire  of  investigating 
causes  and  effects,  were  never  satiated. 

Astronomy  was  with  him  a  subject  of  early  and 
intense  interest.  He  studied  the  works  of  Schubert, 
Lalande,  Biot,  and  Lacroix,  and  constantly  observed 
the  heavens,  and  noticed  their  phenomena,  according 
to  the  calendar.  By  Langlet's  and  Dufresnoy's  tables 
he  attempted  to  ascertain  with  precision  the  Arabian 
and  Turkish  computations  of  time,  comparing  them 
with  those  of  Christian  nations.  From  astronomy  and 
chronology  he  was  drawn  into  the  study  of  mathe 
matics,  and  the  logarithms  in  the  tables  of  Collet. 

Neither  were  the  works  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
and  orators  omitted  in  the  sphere  of  his  studies.  The 
works  of  Plato,  the  orations  of  Demosthenes,  Isocra- 
tes,  ^Eschines,  and  -Cicero,  were  not  only  read,  but 
made  the  subject  of  critical  analysis,  comparison,  and 
reflection. 

Religion  was  also  in  his  mind  a  predominating  ele 
ment.  A  practice,  which  he  prescribed  to  himself, 
and  never  omitted,  of  reading  daily  five  chapters  in 
the  Bible,  familiarized  his  mind  with  its  pages.  In 
connection  with  these  studies  he  read  habitually  the 
works  of  Butler,  Bossuet,  Tillotson,  Massillon,  Atter- 
bury,  and  Watts.  With  such  an  ardor  for  knowledge, 
and  universality  in  its  pursuit,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
he  should  say,  as  on  one  occasion  he  did,  "I  feel 
nothing  like  the  tediousness  of  time.  I  suffer  nothing 
like  ennui.  Time  is  too  short  for  me,  rather  than  too 
long.  If  the  day  was  forty-eight  hours,  instead  of 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  5S 

twenty-four,  I  could  employ  them  all,  if  I  had  but 
eyes  and  hands  to  read  and  write/' 

In  1810,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  who  had 
formed  a  settlement  on  the  north-west  coast  of  North 
America,  were  embarrassed  in  their  intercourse  with 
China,  by  the  Chinese  mistaking  American  for  Rus- 
sian  vessels.  In.  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Adams  on 
the  means  of  avoiding  this  difficulty,  Count  Romanzoff 
described  the  obstacles  the  Russians  had  experienced 
in  their  commerce  with  China.  He  stated  that  in 
the  reign  of  Catharine  II.  the  Emperor  of  China 
complained  of  a  governor  of  a  province  bordering 
on  Russia,  as  "  a  bad  man  ;  >:  in  consequence  of 
which,  the  empress  caused  him  to  be  removed. 
This  concession  did  not  satisfy  the  Chinese  emperor, 
who  declared  the  punishment  insufficient,  and  de 
manded  that  "the  offender  should  be  impaled  alive  by 
way  of  atonement."  This  demand  so  shocked  Catha 
rine  that  she  issued  an  edict  prohibiting  her  subjects 
from  all  commercial  relations  with  China.  This  edict 
continued  in  force  until  the  Chinese  themselves  sought 
for  a  renewal  of  their  former  intercourse,  when  the 
empress  yielded  her  resentment  to  policy. 

The  loss  of  time  from  the  civilities  and  visits  of 
his  numerous  diplomatic  associates  was  annoying  to 
Mr.  Adams.  "  I  have  been  engaged,"  he  wrote,  "  the 
whole  forenoon  ;  and  though  I  rise  at  six  o'clock,  I 
am  sometimes  unable  to  find  time  to  write  only  part 
of  a  private  letter  in  the  course  of  the  day.  These 
visits  take  up  so  much  of  my  time,  that  I  sometimes 
think  of  taking  a  resolution  not  to  receive  them  ;  but, 


54  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

on  the  other  hand,  so  much  information  important  to 
be  possessed,  and  particularly  relative  to  current  polit 
ical  events,  is  to  be  collected  from  them,  that  they 
are  rather  to  be  encouraged  than  discountenanced/' 

"The  French  ambassador,"  writes  Mr.  Adams, 
"  assured  me  that  he  hoped  the  difference  between  his 
country  and  mine  would  soon  be  settled,  and  requested 
me  to  inform  my  government  that  it  was  the  desire  of 
the  Emperor  of  France,  and  of  his  ministers,  to  come  to 
the  best  terms  with  the  United  States  ;  that  they  knew 
our  interests  were  the  same,  but  he  was  perfectly  per 
suaded  that,  if  any  other  person  but  Gen.  Armstrong 
was  there,  our  business  might  be  settled  entirely  to  our 
satisfaction.  I  told  him  that,  as  I  was  as  desirous 
that  we  should  come  to  a  good  understanding,  I  regret 
ted  very  much  that  anything  personal  to  General 
Armstrong  should  be  considered  by  his  government  as 
offensive  ;  that  I  was  sure  the  government  of  the 
United  States  would  regret  it  also,  and  wrould  wish, 
on  learning  it,  to  be  informed  what  were  the  occasions 
of  displeasure  which  he  had  given.  c  C'est  d'abord 
un  tres  galant  homme,'  said  the  ambassador ;  c  but 
he  never  shows  himself,  and  upon  every  little  occasion, 
when  by  a  verbal  explanation  with  the  minister  Gen 
eral  Armstrong  might  obtain  anything,  he  writes 
peevish  notes.'  This  appears  to  me,"  observes  Mr. 
Adams,  "  an  intriguing  manoeuvre,  of  which  the  min 
ister  thinks  I  might  be  made  the  dupe." 

On  one  occasion,  Count  Romanzoff  requested  an 
interview  with  Mr.  Adams,  and,  among  other  inquiries, 
asked  what  could  be  done  to  restore  freedom  and 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  55 

security  to  commerce.  He  replied,  that,  "  setting 
aside  all  official  character  and  responsibility,  and 
speaking  as  an  individual  upon  public  affairs,"  as 
Count  Romanzoff  had  requested,  he  thought  the 
best  course  towards  peace  was  for  his  excellency  to 
convince  the  French  government  that  the  continental 
system,  as  they  called  it,  and  as  they  managed  it,  was 
promoting  to  the  utmost  extent  the  views  of  England, 
and,  instead  of  impairing  her  commerce,  was  securing 
to  her  that  of  the  whole  world,  and  was  pouring  into 
her  lap  the  means  of  continuing  the  war  just  as  long 
as  her  ministers  should  consider  it  expedient.  He 
could  hardly  conceive  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  was 
so  blind  as  not  to  have  made  that  discovery  already. 
Three  years'  experience,  with  the  effects  of  it  becom 
ing  every  day  more  flagrant,  had  made  the  inference 
too  clear  and  unquestionable.  The  Emperor  Napoleon, 
with  all  his  power,  could  neither  control  the  elements 
nor  the  passions  of  mankind.  He  had  found  his  own 
brother  could  not  or  would  not  carry  his  system  into 
execution,  and  had  finally  cast  at  his  feet  the  crown 
he  had  given  him,  rather  than  continue  to  be  his 
instrument  any  longer.  Count  Romanzoff  gravely 
questioned  the  statement  of  Mr.  Adams  respecting  the 
commercial  prosperity  of  England,  but  admitted  his 
views  in  general  to  be  correct,  saying  that,  as  long 
as  a  system  was  agreed  upon,  he  thought  exceptions 
from  it  ought  not  to  be  allowed.  Mr.  Adams  then 
asked  him  how  that  was  possible,  when  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  himself  was  the  first  to  make  such  excep 
tions,  and  to  give  licenses  for  a  direct  trade  with 


56      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 

England?  Count  Romanzoff  replied,  that  he  thought 
all  such  licenses  wrong,  and  he  believed  that  there 
were  not  so  many  of  them  as  was  pretended.  There 
was  indeed  one  case  of  a  vessel  coming  to  St.  Peters 
burg  both  with  an  English  license  and  a  license  from 
the  Emperor  Napoleon.  He  was  of  opinion  that 
she  ought  to  be  confiscated  for  having  the  English 
license.  But  the  French  commercial  and  diplomatic 
agents  were  very  desirous  that  she  might  go  free,  on 
account  of  her  French  license  ;  and  perhaps  the  Em 
peror,  in  consideration  of  his  ally,  might  so  determine. 
Romanzoff  complained  bitterly  that  all  the  ancient 
established  principles,  both  of  commercial  and  polit 
ical  rectitude,  had,  in  a  manner,  vanished  from  the 
world  ;  and  observed  that,  with  all  her  faults,  England 
had  the  advantage  over  her  neighbors,  of  having 
hitherto  most  successfully  resisted  all  the  innovations 
upon  ancient  principles  and  establishments.  For  his 
own  part,  since  he  had  been  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
he  could  sincerely  protest  one  wish  had  been  at  the 
bottom  of  all  his  policy,  and  the  aim  of  all  his  labors, 
—  and  that  was  universal  peace. 

In  1811  Mr.  Adams  received  from  the  Secretary  of 
State  a  commission  of  an  Associate  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  ;  an  appointment 
which  he  immediately  declined. 

In  1812  the  emperor  directed  Count  Romanzoff  to 
inquire  whether,  if  he  should  offer  his  mediation  to 
effect  a  pacification  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  Mr.  Adams  was  aware  of  any  objection 
on  the  part  of  his  government.  He  replied,  that, 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  57 

speaking  only  from  a  general  knowledge  of  its  senti 
ments,  the  proposal  of  the  emperor  would  be  consid 
ered  a  new  evidence  of  his  regard  and  friendship  for 
the  United  States,  whatever  determination  might  be 
formed.  Under  this  assurance,  the  offer  was  made, 
transmitted,  and  immediately  accepted.  In  July, 
1813,  Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr.  Bayard,  being  associated 
with  Mr.  Adams  on  this  mission,  arrived  at  St.  Pe 
tersburg,  bringing  credentials,  for  the  purpose  of 
commencing  a  negotiation,  under  the  mediation  of  the 
emperor. 

On  communicating  these  credentials  to  Count  Ro- 
manzoif,  Mr.  Adams  informed  him  that  he  had  received 
instructions  from  the  American  government  to  remain 
at  St.  Petersburg  under  the  commission  he  had  hereto 
fore  held  ;  and  that  he  had  been  mistaken  in  supposing 
that  his  colleagues  had  other  destination,  independent 
of  this  mission.  His  conjecture  had  been  founded  on 
the  doubt  whether  the  President  would  have  appointed 
this  mission  solely  upon  the  supposition  that  the  medi 
ation  would  be  accepted  by  the  British  government ; 
but  he  was  now  instructed  that  the  President,  con 
sidering  the  acceptance  of  the  British  government 
as  probable,  though  aware  that  if  they  should  reject 
it  this  measure  might  wear  the  appearance  of  precip 
itation,  thought  it  more  advisable  to  incur  that  risk 
than  the  danger  of  prolonging  unnecessarily  the  war 
for  six  or  nine  months,  as  might  happen  if  the  British 
should  immediately  have  accepted  the  mediation,  and 
he  should  have  delayed  this  step  until  he  was  informed 
of  it.  It  was  with  the  President  a  great  object  to 


58       MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

manifest,  not  only  a  cheerful  acceptance  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  but  in  a  signal  manner  his  sen 
timents  of  consideration  and  respect  for  the  emperor, 
and  to  do  honor  to  the  motives  on  which  he  offered  his 
mediation.  After  hearing  these  statements  of  Mr. 
Adams,  the  emperor  directed  Count  Ronianzoff  to 
express  his  particular  gratification  with  the  honorable 
notice  the  American  government  had  taken  of  his 
offer  to  effect  a  pacification  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States. 

In  September  Lord  Cathcart  delivered  to  the  empe 
ror  a  memoir  from  the  British  government,  stating  at 
length  their  reasons  for  declining  any  mediation  in 
their  contest  with  the  United  States.  But,  although 
the  British  government  did  not  choose  that  a  third 
power  should  interfere  in  this  controversy,  it  had 
offered  to  treat  directly  with  the  American  envoys  at 
Gottenburg,  or  in  London. 

This  proposition  having  been  accepted  by  the  United 
States,  Mr.  Adams  was  associated  with  Bayard,  Clay, 
and  Russell,  in  the  negotiation.  After  taking  leave  of 
the  empress  and  Count  Romanzoff,  —  the  emperor  being 
then  before  Paris  with  the  allied  armies,  —  he  quitted 
St.  Petersburg  on  the  28th  of  April,  1814.  His  fam 
ily  remained  in  that  city,  and  he  travelled  alone  to 
Revel.  There  he  received  the  news  of  the  taking  of 
Paris,  and  the  abdication  of  Napoleon.  From  thence 
he  embarked  for  Stockholm. 


CHAPTEK    IV. 

RESIDENCE    AT     GHENT AT    PARIS  —  IN     LONDON. PRESENTATION    TO 

THE    PRINCE    REGENT. NEGOTIATION    WITH    LORD    CASTLEREAGH. 

APPOINTED    SECRETARY    OF    STATE. LEAVES    ENGLAND. 

MR.  ADAMS  arrived  in  Stockholm  on  the  24th  of 
May,  and  after  visiting  Count  Engerstrom,  the  Minis 
ter  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  meeting  the  Swedish  and 
foreign  ministers  at  a  diplomatic  dinner,  given  by 
Baron  Strogonoff,  he  left  that  city  on  the  2d  of  June. 
A  messenger  from  Mr.  Clay  informed  him  that,  at  the 
request  of  Lord  Bathurst,  the  negotiation  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  had  been  transferred  to  Ghent.  Passing 
through  Sweden,  he  embarked  from  Gottenburg  in  the 
United  States  corvette  John  Adams  for  the  Texel, 
landed  at  the  Helder,  and  proceeded  through  Holland 
to  Ghent,  where  his  associates  met  for  the  first  time 
in  his  apartments  on  the  30th  of  June.  The  British 
commissioners  did  not  arrive  until  the  7th  of  August, 
and  their  negotiations  were  not  concluded  until  the 
24th  of  December,  1814.  On  presenting  three  copies 
of  the  treaty,  signed  and  sealed  by  all  the  commission 
ers,  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  on  receiving  three  from  him, 
Lord  Gambier  said,  he  trusted  the  result  of  their  labors 
would  be  permanent.  Mr.  Adams  replied,  he  hoped 

(59) 


60  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

it  would  be  the  last  treaty  of  peace  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States. 

The  American  commissioners  were  presented  to  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  the  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands, 
and,  on  the  5th  of  January,  1815,  the  citizens  of 
Ghent  celebrated  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  by 
invitjng  the  representatives  of  both  nations  to  a  public 
entertainment  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  Mr.  Adams  left 
that  city  with  characteristic  expressions  of  gratitude 
for  the  result  of  a  negotiation  which  he  hoped  would 
prove  propitious  to  the  union  and  best  interests  of  his 
country. 

On  the  3d  of  February  he  arrived  in  Paris,  and 
met  the  American  commissioners,  and  with  them 
was  presented  by  Mr.  Crawford,  resident  minister  of 
the  United  States,  to  Louis  the  Eighteenth,  and  to  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Angouleme.  He  was  also  pre 
sented  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  at  the  Palais  Royal, 
who  spoke  with  grateful  remembrance  of  hospitalities 
he  had  received  in  America.  Mr.  Adams  was  often 
in  the  society  of  Lafayette,  Madame  de  Stael,  Hum- 
boldt,  Constant,  and  other  eminent  persons,  and  was 
deeply  interested  in  observing  the  effect  of  all  changes 
in  the  laws  and  government  of  France. 

The  intelligence  that  Napoleon  had  left  Elba  soon 
caused  great  excitement  and  anxiety  in  Paris,  which 
continued  to  increase  until  the  morning  of  the  20th  of 
March,  when  Louis  the  Eighteenth  left  the  Tuileries. 
In  the  evening  Napoleon  alighted  there  so  silently, 
that  Mr.  Adams,  who  was  at  the  Theatre  Franoais, 
not  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  was  unaware  of  the 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  61 

fact  until  the  next  day,  when  the  gazettes  of  Paris, 
which  had  showered  execrations  upon  him,  announced 
"  the  arrival  of  his  majesty,  the  Emperor,  at  his  pal 
ace  of  the  Tuileries."  In  the  Place  du  Carousel  Mr. 
Adams,  in  his  morning  walk,  saw  regiments  of  cav 
alry,  belonging  to  the  garrison  of  Paris,  wrhich  had 
been  sent  out  to  oppose  Napoleon,  pass  in  review 
before  him,  their  helmets  and  the  clasps  of  their  belts 
yet  glowing  with  the  arms  of  the  Bourbons.  The 
theatres  assumed  the  title  of  Imperial,  and  at  the 
opera,  in  the  evening,  the  arms  of  the  emperor  were 
placed  on  the  curtain  and  on  the  royal  box. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  Mr.  Adams  requested  an 
interview  with  the  emperor's  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  the  Duke  de  Vicence,  with  whom  he  had  been 
previously  acquainted  at  St.  Petersburg.  He  assured 
Mr.  Adams  that  the  late  revolution  had  been  effected 
without  effort ;  that  Fouche,  the  new  Minister  of 
Police,  who  received  reports  from  every  part  of  the 
country,  informed  him  that  there  had  not  been  one  act 
of  violence  or  resistance.  He  said,  that  if  Napoleon 
had  not  returned,  the  misconduct  of  the  Bourbons 
would  have  caused  an  insurrection  of  the  people  in 
less  than  six  months  ;  that  the  emperor  had  renounced 
all  ideas  of  extended  conquest,  and  only  desired  peace 
with  all  the  world.  Mr.  Adams  expressed  a  hope 
that  the  relations  between  France  and  the  United 
States  would  become  friendly  and  mutually  advan 
tageous,  and  said  he  was  awaiting  orders  from  his 
government,  and  should  soon  need  a  passport  to  Eng 
land.  The  duke  assured  him  of  his  readiness  to 


62      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

comply  with  any  request  from  him  or  from  Mr.  Craw 
ford.  All  the  other  foreign  ministers  had  already 
quitted  Paris. 

After  Mrs.  Adams  had  arrived  from  St.  Petersburg, 
Mr.  Adams,  having  been  appointed  American  minister 
at  the  British  Court,  left  Paris,  with  his  family,  on 
the  16th  of  May,  1815.  About  the  time  of  his 
departure  he  observed :  "War  appears  to  be  certain. 
The  first  thought  of  the  inhabitants  of  Paris  will  be 
to  save  themselves.  They  have  no  attachment  either 
to  the  Bourbons  or  Napoleon.  They  will  submit  qui 
etly  to  the  victorious  party,  and  do  nothing  to  support 
either/' 

On  the  25th  of  May  Mr.  Adams  arrived  in  London, 
and  on  the  20th  had  an  interview  with  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  relative  to  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  the  commer 
cial  relations  of  Great  Britain  with  the  United  States. 
The  Prince  Regent,  at  a  private  audience,  sajd  the 
United  States  might  rely  with  full  assurance  on  his 
determination  to  fulfil  all  engagements  with  them  on 
the  part  of  Great  Britain. 

After  the  convention  concerning  commerce  had 
been  concluded,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr.  Clay  had 
departed,  Mr.  Adams  removed  his  residence  to  Boston 
House,  Baling,  nine  miles  from  London,  where  he 
commanded  time  for  his  favorite  studies,  and  recipro 
cated  the  civilities  paid  to  him  and  Mrs.  Adams.  JHe 
continued  to  receive  in  public  and  private  the  distin 
guished  attentions  due  to  his  official  station  and  his 
personal  character  and  attainments.  The  queen  gave 
him  a  private  audience,  and  in  May,  1816,  with  Mrs. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  63 

Adams,  he  was  present  at  the  marriage  of  thte  Princess 
Charlotte  of  Wales.  His  society  was  sought  and 
highly  appreciated  by  the  most  eminent  men  of  all 
classes  ;  and  he  availed  himself,  with  characteristic 
assiduity,  of  all  opportunities  to  acquire  information, 
especially  that  relative  to  the  science  of  government, 
and  the  political  relations  of  Europe. 

,  Some  conversations  and  opinions  his  papers  preserve 
tend  to  throw  light  upon  his  course  and  character. 
In  reply  to  an  inquiry  made  by  Lord  Holland  concern 
ing  the  forms  and  results  of  representation  in  the 
United  States,  Mr.  Adams  said  that  one  consequence 
was  that  a  very  great  proportion  of  their  public  men 
were  lawyers.  Lord  Holland  said  it  was  precisely  the 
same  in  England  ;  that  the  theory  of  their  representa 
tion  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  bad,  but  perhaps 
no  theory  could  produce  a  more  perfect  practice  of 
representation  of  all  classes  and  interests  of  the  com 
munity.  Even  the  close  boroughs  often  served  to 
bring  in  able  and  useful  men,  who  by  a  more  correct 
theory  would  find  themselves  excluded.  Men  of  prop 
erty  could  always  make  their  way  into  Parliament  by 
their  wealth.  Men  of  family  might  go  into  the  House 
of  Commons  for  a  few  years  in  youth,  to  get  experi 
ence  of  public  business,  and  to  employ  time  for  useful 
purposes  ;  and  there  was  no  man  of  real  talent  who, 
in  one  way  or  another,  could  fail  of  obtaining,  sooner 
or  later,  admission  into  Parliament.  But  a  great  pro 
portion  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  lawyers,  and 
most  of  the  business  of  the  house  was  done  by  them. 
In  the  House  of  Lords  all  that  was  of  any  use  was 


64  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

done  by  lawyers.  The  great  practical  use  of  the 
House  of  Lords  was  to  be  a,  check  upon  mischief  that 
might  be  done  by  the  Commons.  Many  bills  passed 
through  that  house  without  sufficient  consideration. 
The  Chancellor  is  under  a  sort  of  personal  responsi 
bility  to  examine  and  stop  them.  His  character 
depends  upon  it.  He  is  at  the  head  of  the  nobility 
of  the  country,  and  his  consideration  depends  upon  his 
keeping  this  vigilant  eye  on  the  proceedings  of  the 
Commons.  All  the  ordinary  business  of  the  house, 
therefore,  rests  upon  a  lawyer. 

Lord  Holland  observed  that  from  what  he  heard  the 
most  defective  part  of  our  institutions  was  the  judi 
ciary  ;  which  Mr.  Adams  admitted. 

In  August,  1816,  at  a  diplomatic  dinner,  given  on 
St.  Louis'  day,  by  the  French  ambassador,  the  Mar 
quis  D'Osmond,  Mr.  Adams  first  met  Mr.  Canning, 
then  recently  appointed  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control.  At  his  request,  he  was  introduced  by  Lord 
Liverpool  to  Mr.  Adams.  They  both  spoke  of  the  great 
and  rapid  increase  of  the  United  States,  and  Canning 
inquired  when  the  next  presidential  election  would 
take  place,  and  who  would  probably  be  chosen.  Mr. 
Adams  replied,  Mr.  Monroe.  Lord  Liverpool  observed 
that  he  had  heard  his  election  might  be  opposed  on 
account  of  his  being  a  Virginian.  Mr.  Adams  said 
that  had  been  a  ground  of  objection,  but  it  would  not 
avail.  He  afterwards  remarks:  "Mr.  Canning, 
whose  celebrity  is  great,  and  whose  talents  are  prob 
ably  greater  than  those  of  any  other  member  of  the 
cabinet,  and  who  has  been  invariably  noted  for  his 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  65 

bitterness  against  the  United  States,  seemed  desirous 
to  make  up  by  an  excess  of  civility  for  the  feelings  he 
has  so  constantly  manifested  against  us/* 

After  reading  the  Gazette  Extraordinary  sent  him 
by  Lord  Castlereagh,  containing  an  account  of  the 
victory  of  Lord  Exmouth,  on  the  27th  of  August,  over 
the  Algerines,  and  that  the  terms  of  capitulation  had 
forced  them  to  deliver  up  all  their  Christian  slaves, 
to  repay  ransom-money,  and  to  stipulate  for  the  formal 
abolition  of  Christian  slavery  in  Algiers  forever,  Mr. 
Adams  observed,  "  This  is  a  deed  of  real  glory." 

The  Lord  Mayor  of  London  introduced  Mr.  Adams 
to  Sir  Philip  Francis,  then  the  supposed  author  of 
the  letters  of  Junius.  On  this  celebrated  work,  on 
a  subsequent  occasion,  Mr.  Adams  remarked  :  "  Sir 
Philip  Francis  is  almost  demonstrated  to  be  the  cul 
prit.  The  speeches  of  Lord  Chatham  bear  the  stamp 
of  a  mind  not  unequal  to  the  composition  of  Junius. 
Those  of  Burke  are  of  a  higher  order.  Were  it  ascer 
tained  that  either  of  them  were  the  political  assassin 
who  stabbed  with  the  dagger  of  Junius,  I  should  not 
add  a  particle  of  admiration  for  his  talents,  and  should 
lose  all  my  respect  for  his  morals.  Junius  was  essen 
tially  a  sophist.  His  religion  was  infidelity,  his 
abstract  ethics  depraved,  his  temper  bitterly  malig 
nant,  and  his  nervous  system  timid  and  cowardly. 
The  concealment  of  his  name  at  the  time  when  he 
wrote  was  the  effect  of  dishonest  fear.  The  perpetu 
ation  of  it  could  only  proceed  from  the  consciousness 
that  the  disclosure  of  his  person  would  be  discreditable 
to  his  fame.  The  object  of  Junius,  when  he  began  to 


66  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

write,  was  merely  to  overthrow  the  administration 
then  in  power.  He  attacked  them  in  a  mass  and 
individually ;  their  measures,  their  capacities,  their 
characters  public  and  private ;  charged  them  with 
every  crime  and  every  vice.  Afterwards,  he  followed 
up  his  general  assault  by  singling  out,  successively, 
the  Dukes  of  Graf  ton  and  Bedford,  Lord  Mansfield, 
Sir  William  Blackstone,  and  the  King  himself.  He 
magnified  mole-hills  into  mountains,  inflamed  pin- 
scratches  into  deadly  wounds,  and  at  last  abandoned 
his  course  in  despair  at  the  very  time  when  he  might 
have  pursued  it  with  the  most  effect.  But  while  he 
was  battering  the  ministry  upon  paltry  topics,  which 
had  neither  root  or  stem,  he  had  declared  himself 
emphatically  and  repeatedly  upon  their  side  on  the 
only  subject  on  which  their  fate  and  the  destiny  of 
the  nation  altogether  depended  —  the  controversy 
with  America.  The  course  he  took  in  the  early  stage 
of  that  conflict,  and  his  disappearance  from  the  thea 
tre  of  politics  at  the  time  when  it  was  ripening  into 
the  magnitude  of  its  nature,  have  marked  Junius  in 
my  mind  as  a  man  of  small  things  —  a  splendid  trifle r, 
a  pompous  and  shallow  politician." 

In  July,  1816,  Mr.  Adams  showed  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  his  authority  and  instructions  to  negotiate  a 
new  commercial  convention  with  the  British  govern 
ment,  stating  "that  one  object  was  to  open  the  trade 
between  the  United  States  and  the  British  colonies  in 
North  America  and  the  West  Indies,  as  great  changes 
had  occurred  since  the  existing  convention  between 
the  countries  was  signed.  That  convention  equalized 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  67 

the  duties  upon  British  and  American  vessels,  in  the 
intercourse  between  Europe  and  the  United  States, 
and  thereby  admitted  British  vessels  into  the  ports  of 
the  United  States  upon  terms  of  equal  competition 
with  American  vessels.  But,  since  that  time,  the 
exclusive  system  of  colonial  regulations  had  been 
resumed  in  the  West  Indies  with  extraordinary  rigor. 
American  vessels  had  been  excluded  from  all  the  ports, 
and  some  seizures  had  been  made  with  such  severity 
that  there  were  cases  upon  which  it  would  soon  become 
his  duty  to  address  the  British  government  in  behalf 
of  individuals  who  had  suffered,  and  deemed  themselves 
entitled  to  the  restitution  of  their  property.  The  con 
sequence  of  these  new  regulations,  as  combined  with 
the  operation  of  the  commercial  convention,  was,  that 
British  vessels  being  admitted  into  our  ports  upon 
equal  terms  with  our  own,  and  then  being  exclusively 
received  in  the  British  West  India  ports,  not  only  thus 
monopolized  the  trade  between  the  United  States  and 
the  West  Indies,  but  acquired  an  advantage  in  the  direct 
trade  from  Europe  to  the  United  States,  which  defeated 
the  main  object  of  the  convention  itself,  of  placing  the 
shipping  of  the  two  countries  upon  equal  terms  of 
fair  competition.  In  North  America  the  same  system 
was  pursued  by  the  colonial  government  of  Upper  Can 
ada.  An  act  of  the  Colonial  Legislature  was  passed  at 
their  last  session,  vesting  in  the  Lieutenant- Governor 
and  Council  of  the  province  the  power  of  regulating 
its  trade  with  the  United  States  ;  and  immediately 
afterwards  a  new  tariff  of  duties  was  issued,  by  an 
order  of  the  previous  Council,  dated  the  18th  of  April, 


68      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

laying  excessively  heavy  duties  upon  all  articles 
imported  into  the  province  from  the  United  States, 
with  the  exception  of  certain  articles  of  provision  of 
the  first  necessity  ;  and  a  tonnage  duty  of  twelve  and 
sixpence  per  ton  upon  American  vessels,  which  was 
equivalent  to  a  total  prohibition/' 

Lord  Castlereagh  said  6 '  that  he  had  not  been  in  the 
way  of  following  the  measures  adopted  in  that  quarter, 
and  was  not  aware  that  there  had  been  any  new  regu 
lations  either  in  the  West  Indies  or  in  North  America. 
In  time  of  war  he  knew  it  had  been  usual  to  open  the 
ports  of  the  West  India  Islands  to  foreigners,  merely 
as  a  measure  of  necessity ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
Americans  attempted  to  starve  them  by  their  embargo 
acts  that  they  were  driven  to  the  resort  of  finding 
resources  elsewhere.  But  in  time  of  peace  it  had 
been  usual  to  exclude  foreigners  from  these  islands." 

He  then  asked  if  the  trade  was  considerable.  Mr. 
Adams  replied  that  it  was.  "  Even  in  time  of  peace 
it  was  highly  necessary  to  the  colonies,  in  respect  to 
some  of  the  imports  indispensable  to  their  subsist 
ence  ;  and,  by  the  exports,  extremely  advantageous 
to  the  interests  of  Great  Britain,  by  furnishing  a  mar 
ket  for  articles  which  she  does  not  take  herself,  and 
which  could  not  be  disposed  of  elsewhere.  At  the 
very  time  of  the  embargo,  the  governors  of  the  Isl 
ands,  so  far  from  adhering  to  the  principle  of  excluding 
American  vessels,  issued  proclamations  inviting  them, 
with  promises  even  that  the  regular  papers  should  not 
be  required  for  their  admission,  and  encouraging  them 
to  violate  the  laws  of  their  own  country  by  carrying 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  69 

them  supplies.  In  time  of  peace  it  was  undoubtedly 
not  so  necessary.  Even  then,  however,  it  was  so  in  a 
high  degree.  The  mother  country  may  supply  them 
in  part,  but  does  not  produce  some  of  the  most  impor 
tant  articles  of  their  importation,  —  rice,  for  exam 
ple,  and  Indian  corn,  the  best  and  cheapest  articles 
for  the  subsistence  of  negroes.  Even  wheat  and  flour, 
and  provisions  generally,  were  much  more  advan 
tageously  imported  from  the  United  States  than  from 
Europe,  being  so  much  less  liable  to  be  damaged  in 
those  hot  climates,  from  the  comparative  shortness  of 
the  voyage.  Another  of  their  importations  was  lum 
ber,  which  is  necessary  for  buildings  upon  the  planta 
tions,  and  which,  after  the  hurricanes  to  which  the 
islands  are  frequently  exposed,  must  be  had  in  large 
quantities." 

Mr.  Adams  added,  "that  the  American  govern 
ment  did  not  on  this  ground  now  propose  that  these 
ports  should  be  opened  to  their  vessels.  They  did 
not  seek  for  a  participation  in  the  British  trade  with 
them.  Great  Britain  might  still  prohibit  the  import 
ation  from  the  United  States  of  such  articles  as  she 
chose  to  supply  herself.  But  they  asked  that  Amer 
ican  vessels  be  admitted  equally  with  British  vessels 
to  carry  the  articles  which  could  be  supplied  only  from 
the  United  States,  or  which  were  supplied  only  to 
them.  The  effect  of  the  new  regulations  had  been 
so  injurious  to  the  shipping  interest  in  America, 
and  was  so  immediately  felt,  that  the  first  impres 
sion  on  the  minds  of  many  was  that  they  should  be 
it  once  met  by  counteracting  legislative  measures 


70  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

of  prohibition.  A  proposal  to  that  effect  was  made 
in  Congress  ;  but  it  was  thought  best  to  endeavor,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  come  to  an  amicable  arrange 
ment  of  the  subject  with  the  British  government. 
Immediate  prohibitions  would  affect  injuriously  the 
British  colonies  ;  they  would  excite  irritation  in  the 
commercial  part  of  the  British  communities.  The 
consideration,  therefore,  of  enacting  legislative  regu 
lations,  was  postponed." 

Lord  Castlereagh,  after  expressing  the  earnest  dispo 
sition  of  his  government  to  promote  harmony  between 
the  two  countries,  said  "  he  was  not  then  prepared  to 
enter  upon  a  discussion  on  the  points  of  the  question, 
but  would  take  it  into  consideration  as  soon  as  possi 
ble." 

Mr.  Adams  then  said  "that  the  American  govern 
ment  was  anxious  to  settle  by  treaty  all  the  subjects 
of  collision  between  neutral  and  belligerent  rights 
which,  in  the  event  of  a  new  maritime  war  in  Europe, 
might  again  arise:  —  blockade,  contraband,  searches 
at  sea,  and  colonial  trade,  but  most  of  all  the  case 
of  the  seamen,  —  concerning  whom  the  American  gov 
ernment  proposed  that  each  party  should  stipulate  not 
to  employ,  in  its  merchant  ships  or  naval  service,  the 
seamen  of  the  other." 

Lord  Castlereagh  inquired  "whether  the  proposal  in 
the  stipulation  related  only  to  native  citizens  and  sub 
jects  ;  and,  if  not,  how  the  question  was  to  be  escaped, 
—  whether  any  act  of  naturalization  shall  avail  to  dis 
charge  a  seaman  from  the  duties  of  his  original  alle 
giance." 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  7l 

Mr.  Adams  replied,  "  that  it  was  proposed  to  include 
in  the  arrangement  only  natives  and  those  who  are  on 
either  side  naturalized  already  ;  so  that  it  would  not 
extend  to  any  hereafter  naturalized.  The  number  of 
persons  included  would,  of  course,  be  very  few." 
Lord  Castlereagh  inquired  "what  regulations  were 
proposed  to  carry  the  stipulation  into  effect."  Mr. 
Adams  replied,  "  that  if  it  was  agreed  to,  he  thought 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  concerting  regulations 
to  carry  it  into  execution  ;  and  that  the  American 
government  would  be  ready  to  agree  to  any  Great 
Britain  might  think  necessary,  consistent  with  indi 
vidual  rights,  to  secure  the  bona  fide  fulfilment  of  the 
engagement."  "But,"  said  Lord  Castlereagh,  "by 
agreeing  to  this  stipulation,  is  it  expected  we  should 
abandon  the  right  of  search  we  have  heretofore  used  ; 
or  is  this  stipulation  to  stand  by  itself,  leaving  the 
rights  of  the  parties  as  they  were  before?"  Mr. 
Adams  replied,  "that  undoubtedly  the  object  of  the 
American  government  was  that  the  result  of  the  stip 
ulation  should  ultimately  be  the  abandonment  of  the 
practice  of  taking  men  from  American  vessels." 
"How,  then,"  said  Lord  Castlereagh,  "shall  we 
escape  the  old  difficulty  ?  The  people  of  this  country 
consider  the  remedy  we  have  always  used  hitherto 
as  the  best  and  only  effective  one.  Such  is  the 
general  opinion  of  the  nation,  and  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  feeling  connected  with  the  sentiment.  If  we 
now  give  up  that,  how  will  it  be  possible  to  devise  any 
regulation,  depending  upon  the  performance  of  another 
state,  which  will  be  thought  as  efficacious  as  that  we 


72      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

have  in  our  own  hands?  He  knew  that  the  policy 
of  the  American  government  had  changed  ;  that  it 
was  formerly  to  invite  and  encourage  British  sea 
men  to  enter  their  service,  but  that  at  present  it  was 
to  give  encouragement  to  their  own  seamen  ;  and  he 
was  in  hopes  that  the  effect  of  these  internal  legis 
lative  measures  would  be  to  diminish  the  necessity 
of  resorting  to  the  right  of  search."  Mr.  Adams,  in 
reply,  said,  "  that  his  lordship  had  once  before  made  a 
similar  observation,  and  that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  take 
notice  of  it.  Being  under  a  perfect  conviction  that  it 
was  erroneous,  he  was  compelled  to  state  that  the  Amer 
ican  government  never  did  in  any  manner  invite  or 
encourage  foreign  seamen  generally,  or  British  seamen 
in  particular,  to  enter  their  service/'  Lord  Castlereagh 
said  "that  he  meant  only  that  their  policy  arose  nat 
urally  from  circumstances,  —  from  the  extraordinary, 
sudden,  and  almost  unbounded  increase  of  their  com 
merce  and  navigation  during  the  late  European  wars  ; 
they  had  not  native  seamen  enough  to  man  their  ships, 
and  the  encouragements  to  foreign  seamen  followed 
from  that  state  of  things."  Mr.  Adams  replied, 
"  that  he  understood  his  lordship  perfectly  ;  but  what 
he  asserted  was  his  profound  conviction  that  he  was 
mistaken  in  point  of  fact.  He  knew  not  how  the 
policy  of  any  government  can  be  manifested  otherwise 
than  by  its  acts.  Now,  there  never  was  any  one  act, 
either  of  the  legislature  or  executive,  which  could 
have  even  a  tendency  to  invite  British  seamen  into  the 
American  service."  "But,"  said  Lord  Castlereagh, 
"at  least,  then,  there  was  nothing  done  to  prevent 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  73 

them."  Mr.  Adams  replied,  "That  may  be;  but 
there  is  a  very  material  distinction  between  giving 
encouragement  and  doing  nothing  to  prevent  them. 
Our  naturalization  laws  certainly  hold  out  to  them 
nothing  like  encouragement.  You  naturalize  every 
foreign  seaman  by  the  mere  fact  of  two  years'  service 
on  board  of  your  public  ships,  ipso  facto,  without  cost, 
or  form,  or  process.  We  require  five  years'  residence 
in  the  United  States,  two  years  of  notice  in  a  court 
of  record,  and  a  certificate  of  character,  before  the  act 
of  naturalization  is  granted.  Thus  far  only  may  be 
admitted,  —  that  the  great  and  extraordinary  increase 
of  our  commerce,  to  which  you  have  alluded,  had  the 
effect  of  raising  the  wages  of  seamen  excessively  high. 
Our  government  certainly  gave  no  encouragement  to 
this  ;  neither  did  our  merchants,  who  would  surely 
have  engaged  their  seamen  at  lower  wages,  if  possi 
ble.  These  wages,  no  doubt,  operated  as  a  strong 
temptation  to  your  seamen  to  go  into  the  American 
service.  Your  merchant  service  could  not  afford  to 
pay  them  so  high.  The  wages  in  the  king's  ships 
are  much  lowrer,  and  numbers  of  British  seamen, 
accordingly,  find  employment  on  board  American  ves 
sels  ;  but  encouragement  from  the  American  govern 
ment  they  never  had  in  any  manner.  They  were 
merely  not  excluded  ;  and  even  now,  in  making  the 
proposal  to  exclude  them,  it  is  not  from  any  change 
of  policy,  but  solely  for  the  purpose  of  giving  satis 
faction  to  Great  Britain,  and  of  stopping  the  most 
abundant  source  of  dissension  with  her.  It  proves 


74  MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS, 

only  the  earnestness   of  our  desire  to  be  upon   good 
terms  with  you." 

Mr.  Adams  said,  with  regard  to  his  proposal  of 
excluding  each  other's  seamen,  "  that  he  was  not  pre 
pared  to  say  that  an  article  could  not  be  framed  by 
which  the  parties  might  stipulate  the  principle  of 
mutual  exclusion,  without  at  all  affecting  or  referring 
to  the  rights  or  claims  of  either  party.  Perhaps  it 
might  be  accomplished  if  the  British  government 
should  assume  it  as  one  of  the  objects  to  be  arranged 
by  the  convention."  On  which  Lord  Castlereagh 
said:  "In  that  case  there  will  not  be  so  much  diffi 
culty.  If  it  is  a  mere  agreement  of  mutual  exclusion, 
tending  to  diminish  the  occasion  for  exercising  the 
right  of  search,  and  undoubtedly  if  it  should  prove 
effectual,  it  would  in  the  end  operate  as  an  induce 
ment  to  forbear  the  exercise  of  the  right  entirely." 

Discussions  with  the  same  nobleman  on  other  topics 
bearing  upon  the  commercial  relations  between  the 
two  nations  are  preserved  among  the  papers  of  Mr. 
Adams. 

On  the  16th  of  April,  1817,  Mr.  Adams  received 
letters  from  President  Monroe,  with  the  information 
that,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Senate,  the  Depart 
ment  of  State  had  been  committed  to  him ;  a  trust 
which  he  accepted  with  a  deep  sense  of  its  weight  and 
responsibility.  In  compliance  with  Mr.  Monroe's 
request,  he  made  immediate  arrangements  to  return 
to  the  United  States.  On  presenting  his  letters  of 
recall  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  congratulations  .on  his 
appointment  were  attended  with  regrets  at  his  re- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  75 

moval  from  his  mission.  Mr.  Adams  stated  that  the 
uncertainty  of  his  acceptance  of  the  office  of  Secre 
tary  of  State  had  prevented  an  immediate  appoint 
ment  of  his  successor,  but  that  he  was  instructed 
in  the  strongest  manner  to  declare  the  earnest  desire 
of  President  Monroe  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly 
intercourse  with  Great  Britain.  He  gave  the  same 
explanation  to  the  Prince  Regent,  at  a  private  audi 
ence,  who  replied  by  an  assurance  of  his  disposition 
to  continue  to  promote  the  harmony  between  the  two 
nations  which  was  required  by  the  interests  of  both. 
There  was  no  formality  in  the  discourse  on  either  side, 
and  the  generalities  of  mutual  assurance  were  much 
alike,  and  estimated  at  their  real  value.  In  reply 
to  the  inquiries  of  the  Prince,  the  names  of  the  mem 
bers  of  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet  were  mentioned.  He 
was  not  acquainted  with  any  of  them,  but  spoke 
in  handsome  terms  of  Mr,  Thomas  Pinckney  and  Mr. 
Rufus  King,  and  asked  many  questions  concerning 
the  organization  of  the  American  government.  Lord 
Castlereagh,  in  his  final  interview  with  Mr.  Adams, 
made  numerous  inquiries  relative  to  the  foreign  rela 
tions  of  the  United  States,  especially  in  regard  to 
Spain,  and  again  expressed  the  desire  of  the  British 
government  not  only  to  remain  at  peace  themselves, 
but  also  to  promote  tranquillity  among  other  nations. 
Prince  Esterhazy,  in  a  parting  visit  to  Mr.  Adams, 
also  assured  him  that  the  cabinets  of  Europe  were 
never  so  universally  and  sincerely  pacific  as  at  that 
time  ;  that  they  all  had  finances  to  redeem,  ratages 
to  repair,  and  wanted  a  period  of  long  repose. 


76  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

After  taking  leave  of  his  numerous  friends  in  office 
and  in  private  life,  Mr.  Adams  bade  farewell  to  Lon 
don,  and  embarked  with  his  family  from  Cowes,  in  the 
packet-ship  Washington,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1817, 
for  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER    V. 

FIRST   TERM    OF    MR.    MONROE'S    ADMINISTRATION. STATE    OF    PARTIES. 

SEMINOLE     WAR. TAKING    OF    PENSACOLA. NEGOTIATION    WITH 

SPAIN.  —  PURCHASE    OF    THE    FLORIDAS. COLONIZATION     SOCIETY. 

THE    ADMISSION    OF    MISSOURI    INTO    THE    UNION. 

A  TEDIOUS  voyage  of  seven  weeks  was  beguiled  by 
Mr.  Adams  with  Bacon's  Novum  Organum,  the  novels 
of  Scott,  and  the  game  of  chess,  which  last,  in  his  esti 
mate,  surpassed  all  other  resources  when  at  sea.  On 
the  7th  of  August  he  arrived  at  New  York,  with  min 
gled  emotions  of  gratitude  for  the  past,  and  anxious 
forecast  of  the  cares  and  perils  of  the  scene  on  which 
he  was  about  to  enter.  After  a  detention  in  that 
city  by  official  business,  on  the  18th  of  August  he 
reached  Quincy,  Massachusetts,  and  enjoyed  the  inex 
pressible  happiness  of  again  meeting  his  venerable 
father  and  mother  in  perfect  health,  after  an  absence 
of  eight  eventful  years.  In  September,  at  Washing 
ton,  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State. 

The  foreign  relations  of  the  United  States  were, 
at  this  period,  peaceful,  except  that  questions  con 
cerning  spoliations  on  American  commerce  and  set 
tlement  of  boundaries  were  depending  with  Spain,  and 
the  sympathy  of  the  United  States  for  her  revolted 
colonies  excited  her  jealousy  and  fear,  which  the 


78      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

seizure  of  Amelia  Island,  under  the  real  or  pre 
tended  authority  of  one  of  them,  had  tended  greatly 
to  increase. 

Internally,  the  political  relations  of  the  country 
were  in  a  transition  state.  The  chief  power,  which 
Virginia  had  held  during  three  presidencies,  was  now 
about  to  pass  from  her  hands  ;  there  being  no  states 
man  among  her  sons  who  could  compete,  as  a  can 
didate  for  the  successorship  to  Monroe,  with  the  tal 
ents  and  popularity  of  rising  aspirants  in  other  states. 
Her  policy  therefore  was  directed  to  secure,  for  the 
next  term  of  the  presidency,  a  candidate  friendly  to 
the  political  dogmas  she  cherished,  and  to  the  inter 
ests  and  projects  of  the  Southern  States.  The  char 
acter  and  principles  of  Mr.  Adams  were  not  adapted  to 
become  subservient  to  her  views,  and  she  saw  with 
little  complacency  his  elevation  to  the  office  of  Secre 
tary  of  State,  which  was  in  popular  opinion  a  proxi 
mate  step  to  the  President's  chair.  Yet  it  could  not 
be  doubted  that  his  appointment  had  the  assent,  if  not 
the  approbation,  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  without 
whose  concurrence  Monroe  would  scarcely  have  ven 
tured  to  raise  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  to  that 
station. 

The  prospective  change,  in  the  principles  and  influ 
ences  of  public  affairs,  which  the  close  of  Mr.  Monroe's 
term  of  office  would  effect,  elevated  the  hopes  and 
awakened  the  activity  of  the  partisans  of  Crawford, 
of  Georgia,  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  and  De  Witt  Clinton, 
of  New  York.  Crawford,  who  had  been  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  under  Madison,  and  who  was  again  placed 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  79 

in  that  office  by  Monroe,  was  understood  to  be  the 
favorite  candidate  of  Virginia.  Clay,  one  of  the  most 
talented  and  popular  politicians  of  the  period,  had 
been  an  active  supporter  of  Monroe  for  the  presidency. 
His  friends  did  not  conceal  their  disappointment 
that  he  was  not  invited  to  take  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  State  ;  nor  did  he  disguise  his  dissatisfaction  at  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Adams.  In  New  York,  De  "Witt 
Clinton,  in  his  straggles  with  Van  Buren  for  ascend 
ency  in  that  state,  by  one  of  those  mysterious  changes 
to  which  political  tempests  are  subject,  had  been  at 
one  moment  cast  out  of  the  mayoralty  of  the  city, 
and  at  the  next  into  the  governor's  chair.  His  parti 
sans,  deeming  his  position  and  popularity  now  favorable 
to  his  elevation  to  the  presidency,  which  he  had  long 
desired  and  once  attempted  to  attain,  placed  him  in 
nomination  for  that  office. 

Each  of  these  candidates  possessed  great  personal 
and  local  popularity,  spirit  and  power  adapted  to 
success,  and  adherents  watchful  and  efficient.  To 
cope  with  all  these  rival  influences,  Mr.  Adams  had 
talents,  integrity,  fidelity  to  his  country,  and  devotion 
to  the  fulfilment  of  official  duty,  in  which  he  had  no 
superior.  Having  been  absent  eight  years  in  foreign 
countries  in  public  service,  he  had  no  Southern  or 
Western  current  in  his  favor  ;  and  that  which  set 
from  the  North,  though  generally  favorable,  being 
divided,  was  comparatively  feeble,  and  rather  acqui 
escent  in  his  elevation  than  active  in  promoting  it. 

On  his  appointment  as  Secretary  of  State,  Mr. 
Adams  remarked:  "  Whether  it  is  for  my  own  good 


80  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

is  known  only  to  God.  As  yet  I  have  far  more  reason 
to  lament  than  rejoice  at  the  event ;  yet  I  feel  not 
less  my  obligation  to  Mr.  Monroe  for  his  confidence  in 
me,  and  the  duty  of  personal  devotion  to  the  success 
of  his  administration  which  it  imposes. "  Before  the 
lapse  of  a  year  that  administration  was  assailed  in 
Congress  and  in  the  newspapers,  and  the  attacks  were 
concentrated  on  Mr.  Adams.  The  calumnies  by  which 
his  father's  administration  had  been  prostrated  five- 
and-twenty  years  before  were  revived,  and  poured 
out  with  renewed  malignity.  Duane,  in  his  Aurora, 
published  in  Philadelphia,  and  his  coadjutors  in  other 
parts  of  the  Union,  represented  him  as  "  a  royalist," 
"  an  enemy  to  the  rights  of  man  ;  "  as  a  "  friend  of 
oligarchy  ;  "  as  a  "  misanthrope,  educated  in  contempt 
of  his  fellow-men  ;  "  as  * c  unfit  to  be  the  minister  of 
a  free  and  virtuous  people."  Privately,  and  through 
the  press,  Mr.  Monroe  was  warned  that  he  "  was  full 
of  duplicity ;  "  "an  incubus  on  his  prospects  for  the 
next  presidency,  and  on  his  popularity."  When  these 
calumnies  were  uttered,  as  some  of  them  were,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  they  naturally  excited  the 
indignation  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  the  anxiety  of  his 
friends.  Being  asked  by  one  of  them  whether  it 
would  not  be  advisable  to  expose  the  conduct  and 
motives  of  rival  statesmen,  in  the  newspapers,  he 
answered  explicitly  in  the  negative,  saying:  "The 
execution  of  my  duties  is  the  only  answer  I  can  give 
to  censure.  I  will  do  absolutely  nothing  to  promote 
any  pretensions  my  friends  may  think,  I  have  to  the 
presidency."  On  being  told  that  his  rivals  would 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  81 

not  be  so  scrupulous,  and  that  he  would  not  stand  on 
an  equal  footing  with  them,  he  replied  :  "  That  is 
not  my  fault.  My  business  is  to  serve  the  public  to 
the  best  of  my  abilities  in  the  station  assigned  to  me, 
and  not  to  intrigue  for  my  own  advancement.  I  never, 
by  the  most  distant  hint  to  any  one,  expressed  a  wish 
for  any  public  office,  and  I  shall  not  now  begin  to  ask 
for  that  which,  of  all  others,  ought  to  be  most  freely 
and  spontaneously  bestowed." 

Among  the  difficulties  incident  to  the  office  of  Sec- 

o 

retary  of  State,  that  of  making  appointments  was  the 
most  annoying  and  thankless.  They  were  sought  with 
a  bold  and  rabid  pertinacity.  Success  was  attributed 
to  the  favor  of  the  President ;  ill  success,  to  the  influ 
ence  of  the  Secretary.  When  the  applicant  was  a 
relative  his  patronage  was  naturally  expected  ;  but, 
with  every  expression  of  good-will,  he  avoided  all 
recommendation  in  such  cases,  saying  that  such  claims 
must  be  presented  through  other  channels. 

The  attention  of  the  government  was  early  drawn 
to  the  proceedings  of  the  Seminole  Indians,  who  had 
commenced  hostilities  with  circumstances  of  great 
barbarity.  Orders  were  sent  to  General  Jackson  to 
repair  to  the  seat  of  war  with  such  troops  as  he  could 
collect,  and  the  Georgia  militia,  and  to  reduce  the 
Indians  by  force,  pursuing  them  into  Florida,  if  they 
should  retreat  for  refuge  there. 

About  this  time  the  republic  of  Buenos  Ayres  sent 
an  agent  urging  an ,  acknowledgment  of  their  inde 
pendence.  Their  claim  was  in  unison  with  the  pop 
ular  feeling  in  the  South  ;  but  elsewhere  throughout 

6 


82  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS. 

the  nation  public  opinion  was  divided,  as  were  also 
the  members  of  the  President's  cabinet.  Mr.  Adams 
declared  himself  against  such  recognition,  as  it 
would  interfere  with  a  negotiation  with  Spain  for 
the  purchase  of  the  Floridas.  He  urged,  also,  that 
McGregor,  the  adventurer,  who,  under  a  pretence  of 
authority  from  Buenos  Ayres,  had  taken  possession 
of  Amelia  Island,  should  be  compelled  to  withdraw 
his  troops  by  a  naval  force  sent  for  that  purpose. 
On  this  measure,  also,  both  the  nation  and  the  cabi 
net  were  divided.  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  took  ground  in  opposition  to  the  policy 
of  the  administration,  avowing  openly  his  intention 
of  bringing  forward  a  motion  in  favor  of  recognizing 
the  independence  of  Buenos  Ayres.  To  control  or 
overthrow  the  executive  by  the  weight  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  was  apparently  his  object.* 

*  A  committee  appointed  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  McGregor's 
possession  of  Amelia  Island,  waited  on  Mr.  Adarns,  and  inquired  concerning 
the  proposed  proceedings  of  the  executive,  and  his  powers  in  that  respect. 
Mr.  Adams  took  occasion  to  state  and  explain  to  them  the  effects  of  "  the 
secret  laws,  as  they  were  called,  and  which,"  he  said,  "  were  singular  anom 
alies  of  our  system,  having  grown  out  of  that  error  in  our  constitution  which 
confers  upon  the  legislative  assemblies  the  power  of  declaring  war,  which,  in 
the  theory  of  government,  according  to  Montesquieu  and  Rousseau,  is  strictly 
an  executive  act.  But,  as  we  have  made  it  legislative,  whenever  secrecy  is 
necessary  for  an  operation  of  the  executive  involving  the  question  of  peace 
and  war,  Congress  must  pass  a  secret  law  to  give  the  President  power.  Now, 
secrecy  is  contrary  to  one  of  the  first  principles  of  legislation,  but  the  absurd 
ity  flows  from  having  given  to  Congress,  instead  of  the  executive,  the  power 
of  declaring  war.  Of  these  secret  laws  there  are  four,  and  one  resolution  ; 
and  one  of  the  laws,  that  of  the  28th  of  June,  1812,  is  so  secret,  that  to 
this  day  it  cannot  be  found  among  the  rolls  of  the  department.  Another 
consequence  has  followed  from  this  clumsy  political  machinery.  The  injunc 
tion  of  secrecy  was  removed  on  the  6th  of  July,  1812,  from  the  laws  previ 
ously  passed  by  a  vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  yet  the  laws  have 
never  been  published." 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUIXCY    ADAMS.  83 

In  January,  1818,  McGregor  and  his  freebooters 
having  been  driven,  by  the  authority  of  the  executive, 
from  Amelia  Island  by  the  United  States  troops,  a 
question  arose  whether  they  should  be  withdrawn, 
or  possession  of  the  island  retained,  subject  to 
future  negotiations  with  Spain.  Mr.  Adams  and 
Mr.  Calhoun  advocated  the  latter  opinion.  The  Pres 
ident,  Mr.  Crowninshield,  and  Mr.  Wirt,  were  in  favor 
of  withdrawing  the  troops.  After  discussion  of  a  mes 
sage  proposed  to  be  sent  to  Congress  avowing  the 
intention  to  restore  the  island  to  Spain,  the  subject 
was  left  undetermined,  the  President  being  embar 
rassed  concerning  the  policy  to  be  pursued,  by  the 
division  of  his  constitutional  advisers.  On  which  Mr. 
Adams  remarked:  "  These  cabinet  councils  open 
upon  me  a  new  scene,  and  new  views  of  the  political 
world.  Here  is  a  play  of  passions,  opinions,  and 
characters,  different  from  those  in  which  I  have  been 
accustomed  heretofore  to  move." 

About  this  time  the  President  received  information 
that  the  Spanish  government  were  discouraged,  and 
that  Onis,  the  Spanish  minister,  had  received  author 
ity  to  dispose  of  the  Floridas  to  the  United  States  on 
the  best  terms  possible.  This  intelligence  Mr.  Mon 
roe  communicated  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  requested  him 
to  see  the  Spanish  minister,  and  inquire  what  Spain 
would  take  for  all  her  possessions  east  of  the  Missis 
sippi.  When  Mr.  Adams  obtained  an  interview  with 
Onis,  he  waived  any  direct  answer  to  the  question, 
and  asked  what  were  the  intentions  of  the  United 
States  relative  to  the  occupation  of  Amelia  Island. 


84      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS. 

Mr.  Adams  replied,  that  this  was  a  mere  measure  of 
self-defence,  and  asked  what  guarantee  Oms  could 
give  that  the  freebooters  would  not  again  take  pos- 

O 

session,  to  the  annoyance  of  lawful  commerce,  if  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  were  removed.  Onis  said 
he  could  give  none,  except  a  promise  to  write  to  the 
Governor  of  Havana  for  troops;  hut, he  admitted 
that,  if  sufficient  force  could  there  he  obtained,  six 
or  seven  months  might  elapse  before  they  could  be 
sent  to  Amelia  Island.  A  continuance  of  the  present 
occupation  by  the  United  States  was  thus  rendered 
unavoidable.  The  consideration  of  the  question  of 
restoring  it  to  Spain  was  postponed  in  the  cabinet,  and 
the  message  of  the  President  to  Congress  was  so  mod 
ified  as  to  state  his  intention  of  keeping  possession 
of  it  for  the  present. 

During  the  remainder  of  this  session  Mr.  Clay 
took  opposition  ground  on  all  the  cardinal  points 
maintained  by  the  President,  especially  on  the  consti 
tutional  question  concerning  internal  improvements, 
and  upon  South  American  affairs.  His  course  was 
so  obviously  marked  with  the  design  of  rising  on  the 
ruins  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration,  that  one  of  his 
own  papers  in  Kentucky  publicly  stated  that  "he 
had  broken  ground  within  battering  distance  of  the 
President's  message."  In  a  speech  made  on  the  24th 
of  March,  1817,  on  the  general  appropriation  bill,  he 
moved  an  appropriation  of  eighteen  thousand  dollars 
as  one  year's  salary  and  an  outfit  for  a  minister  to  the 
government  of  Buenos  Ay  res.  This  was  only  a  mode 
of  proposing  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  that  gov- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  85 

eminent.  The  motion  was  soon  after  rejected  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  a  great  majority,  and 
his  attempt  to  make  manifest  the  unpopularity  of  the 
administration  proved  a  failure. 

In  July,  1818,  news  came  that  General  Jackson 
had  taken  Pensacola  by  storm,  —  a  measure  which 
excited  universal  surprise.  But  one  opinion  appeared 
at  first  to  prevail  in  the  nation, —  that  Jackson  had  not 
only  acted  without,  but  against,  his  instructions  ;  that 
he  had  commenced  war  upon  Spain,  which  could  not 
be  justified,  and  in  which,  if  not  disavowed  by  the 
administration,  they  would  be  abandoned  by  the  coun 
try.  Every  member  of  the  cabinet,  the  President 
included,  concurred  in  these  sentiments,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  Mr.  Adams.  He  maintained  that  there  was 
no  real,  though  an  apparent  violation  of  his  instruc 
tions  ;  that  his  proceedings  were  justified  by  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  and  the  misconduct  of  the 
Spanish  commandant  in  Florida.  Mr.  Adams  ad 
mitted  that  the  question  was  embarrassing  and  com 
plicated,  as  involving  not  merely  an  actual  war  with 
Spain,  but  also  the  power  of  the  executive  to  author 
ize  hostilities  without  a  declaration  of  war  by  Con 
gress.  He  averred  that  there  was  no  doubt  that 
defensive  acts  of  hostility  might  be  authorized  by  the 
executive,  and  on  this  ground  Jackson  had  been 
authorized  to  cross  the  Spanish  frontier  in  pursuit  of 
the  Indian  enemy.  His  argument  was,  that  the  ques 
tion  of  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  executive 
wras  in  its  nature  defensive  ;  that  all  the  rest,  even 
to  the  taking  the  fort  of  Barancas  by  storm,  was 


86  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

incidental,  deriving  its  character  from  the  objectt 
which  was  not  hostility  to  Spain,  but  the  termination 
of  the  Indian  war.  This  was  the  justification  offered 
by  Jackson  himself,  who  alleged  that  an  imagi 
nary  air-line  of  the  thirty-first  degree  of  latitude  could 
not  afford  protection  to  our  frontier,  while  the  Indians 
had  a  safe  refuge  in  Florida  ;  and  that  all  his  opera 
tions  had  been  founded  on  that  consideration. 

This  state  of  things  embarrassed  the  negotiation 
with  the  Spanish  minister,  who  was  afraid,  under 
these  circumstances,  to  proceed  without  receiving 
instructions.  Mr.  Adams  endeavored,  however,  to 
satisfy  Onis,  by  assuring  him  that  Pensacola  had  been 
taken  without  orders ;  but  he  also  stated  that  no 
blame  would  be  attached  to  Jackson,  on  account  of 
the  strong  charges  he  brought  against  the  Governor 
of  Pensacola,  who  had  threatened  to  drive  him  out  of 
the  province  by  force,  if  he  did  not  withdraw.  In 
support  of  these  views,  Mr.  Adams  adduced  the  opin 
ions  of  writers  on  national  law.  To  the  members  of 
the  cabinet  he  admitted  that  it  was  requisite  to  carry 
the  reasoning  on  his  principles  to  the  utmost  extent 
they  would  bear,  to  come  to  this  conclusion  ;  yet  he 
maintained  that,  if  the  question  were  dubious,  it  was 
better  to  err  on  the  side  of  vigor  than  of  weakness, 
of  our  own  officer  than  of  our  enemy.  There  was 
a  large  portion  of  the  public  who  coincided  in  opin 
ion  with  Jackson,  and  if  he  were  disavowed,  his 
friends  would  assert  that  he  had  been  sacrificed  be 
cause  he  was  an  obnoxious  man ;  that,  after  having 
had  the  benefit  of  his  services,  he  was  abandoned  for 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  87 

the  sake  of  conciliating  the  enemies  of  his  country, 
and  his  case  would  be  compared  to  that  of  Sir  Wal 
ter  Raleigh. 

Mr.  Monroe  listened  with  candor  to  the  debates 
of  the  cabinet,  without  varying  from  his  original 
opinion.  They  resulted  in  a  disclaimer  of  power  in 
the  President  to  have  authorized  General  Jackson  to 
take  possession  of  Pensacola.  On  this  determination, 
Mr.  Adams  finally  gave  up  his  opposition,  and  acqui 
esced  in  the  opinion  of  every  other  member  of  the 
cabinet,  remarking  on  this  result:  "  The  administra 
tion  are  placed  in  a  dilemma,  from  which  it  is  impos 
sible  for  them  to  escape  censure  by  some,  and  factious 
crimination  by  many.  If  they  avow  and  approve 
Jackson's  conduct,  they  incur  the  double  responsibility 
of  having  made  a  war  against  Spain,  in  violation  of 
the  constitution,  without  the  authority  of  Congress. 
If  they  disavow  him,  they  must  give  offence  to  his 
friends,  encounter  the  shock  of  his  popularity,  and 
have  the  appearance  of  truckling  to  Spain.  For  all 
this  I  should  be  prepared  ;  but  the  mischief  of  this 
determination  lies  deeper.  1.  It  is  weakness,  and 
confession  of  weakness.  2.  The  disclaimer  of  power 
in  the  executive  is  of  dangerous  example,  and  of  evil 
consequences.  3.  There  is  injustice  to  the  officer  in 
disavowing  him,  when  in  principle  he  is  strictly  justi 
fiable.  These  charges  will  be  urged  with  great  vehe 
mence  on  one  side,  while  those  who  would  have  cen 
sured  the  other  course  will  not  support  or  defend  the 
administration  for  taking  this.  I  believe  the  other 
would  have  been  a  safer  and  a  bolder  course."  A 


88  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

wish  having  been  expressed  that  it  should  be  stated 
publicly  that  the  opinion  of  the  members  of  the  cab 
inet  had  been  unanimous,  Mr.  Adams  said  that  he  had 
acquiesced  in  the  ultimate  determination,  and  would 
cheerfully  bear  his  share  of  the  responsibility  ;  but 
that  he  could  not  in  truth  say  it  had  been  conformable 
to  his  opinion,  for  that  had  been  to  approve  and 
justify  the  conduct  of  Jackson,  whereas  it  was  disa 
vowed,  and  the  place  he  had  taken  was  to  be  uncon 
ditionally  restored. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Adams  was  laboriously  collecting 
evidence  in  support  of  these  views,  and  preparing 
letters  of  instruction  to  George  Erving,  dated  the  19th 
of  November,  in  which  Jackson's  conduct  is  fully 
stated,  and  the  execution  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambris- 
ter  and  the  taking  of  Pensacola  defended.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  wrote  to  President  Monroe  expressing  in  the 
highest  terms  his  approbation  of  these  letters,  and  the 
hope  that  those  of  the  12th  of  March  and  the  28th 
of  November  to  Erving,  with,  also,  those  of  Mr. 
Adams  to  Onis,  would  be  translated  into  French,  and 
communicated  to  every  court  in  Europe,  as  a  thorough 
vindication  of  the  conduct  and  policy  of  the  American 
government.  Writing  about  the  affairs  of  Florida  at 
this  time,  Mr.  Adams  observed  :  "  With  these  con 
cerns,  political,  personal,  and  electioneering  intrigues 
are  mingling  themselves,  with  increasing  heat  and  vio 
lence.  This  government  is  assuming  daily,  more  and 
more,  a  character  of  cabal  and  preparation,  not  for 
the  next  presidential  election,  but  for  the. one  after, 
that  is  working  and  counterworking,  with  many  of 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  89 

the  worst  features  of  elective  monarchies.     Jackson 
has  made  for  himself  a  multitude  of  friends,  and  still 


more  enemies." 


In  the  latter  part  of  December,  1818,  when  Gen 
eral  Jackson  visited  Washington,  a  strong  party  man 
ifested  itself  disposed  to  bring  him  forward  as  a 
candidate  for  the  next  Presidency.  "His  services 
during  the  last  campaign,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  would 
have  given  him  great  strength,  had  he  not  counter 
acted  these  dispositions  by  several  of  his  actions  in 
Florida.  The  partisans  of  Crawford  and  De  Witt 
Clinton  took  the  alarm,  and  began  their  attacks  upon 
Jackson  for  the  purpose  of  running  him  down.  His 
conduct  is  beginning  to  be  arraigned  with  extreme 
violence  in  every  quarter  of  the  Union,  and,  as  I  am 
his  official  defender  against  Spain  and  England,  I 
shall  come  in  for  my  share  of  the  obloquy  so  liberally 
bestowed  upon  him." 

Mr.  Adams  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  from 
Hyde  de  Neuville,  the  French  minister,  an  assurance 
of  his  coincidence  of  opinion  with  him,  and  that  he 
had  written  to  his  own  government  that  the  proceed 
ings  of  General  Jackson  had  been  right,  particularly 
in  respect  of  the  two  Englishmen.  Although  there 
was  a  difference  of  opinion  on  the  subject  among  the 
members  of  the  diplomatic  body,  he  declared  that  his 
own  was  that  such  incendiaries  and  instigators  of 
savage  barbarities  should  be  put  to  death. 

On  one  occasion,  the  President  expressed  to  Mr. 
Adams  his  astonishment  at  the  malignancy  of  the 
reports  which  some  newspapers  were  circulating  con- 


90  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

cerning  him,  and  asked  in  what  motives  they  could 
have  originated.  Mr.  Aclams  replied,  that  the  mo 
tives  did  not  lie  very  deep  ;  that  there  had  been  a 
spirit  at  work,  ever  since  he  came  to  Washington, 
very  anxious  to  find  or  make  occasions  of  censure 
upon  him.  That  spirit  he  could  not  lay.  His  only 
resource  was  to  pursue  his  course  according  to  his 
own  sense  of  right,  and  abide  by  the  consequences 
To  which  the  President  fully  assented. 

While  these  events  were  agitating  the  political 
world,  Mr.  Adams  was  called  to  lament  the  death  of 
his  mother,  dear  to  his  heart  by  every  tie  of  affection 
and  gratitude.  His  feelings  burst  forth,  on  the  occa 
sion,  in  eloquent  and  touching  tributes  to  her  memory. 
"  This  is  one  of  the  severest  afflictions,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  to  which  human  existence  is  liable.  The  silver  cord 
is  broken,  —  the  tenderest  of  natural  ties  is  dissolved, 
— life  is  no  longer  to  me  what  it  was,  —  my  home  is 
no  longer  the  abode  of  my  mother.  While  she  lived, 
whenever  I  returned  to  the  paternal  roof,  I- felt  as  if 
the  joys  and  charms  of  childhood  returned  to  make 
me  happy  ;  all  was  kindness  and  affection.  At  once 
silent  and  active  as  the  movement  of  the  orbs  of 
heaven,  one  of  the  links  which  connected  me  with 
former  ages  is  no  more.  May  a  merciful  Providence 
spare  for  many  future  years  my  only  remaining 
parent !  " 

The  policy  of  the  friends  and  enemies  of  Mr.  Mon 
roe's  administration  was  developed  by  the  debates  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  Seminole  war, 
and  the  spirit  of  intrigue  began  to  operate  with  great 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  91 

publicity.  Some  of  the  Western  friends  of  Mr.  Adams 
proposed  to  him  measures  of  counteraction,  on  which 
he  remarked  :  ' '  These  overtures  afford  opportunities 
and  temptations  to  intrigue,  of  which  there  is  much 
in  this  government,  and  without  which  the  prospects 
of  a  public  man  are  desperate.  Caballing  with  mem 
bers  of  Congress  for  future  contingency  has  become 
so  interwoven  with  the  practical  course  of  our  gov 
ernment,  and  so  inevitably  flows  from  the  practice  of 
canvassing  by  the  members  to  fix  on  candidates  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  th'at  to  decline  it  is  to 
pass  a  sentence  of  total  exclusion.  Be  it  so  !  What 
ever  talents  I  possess,  that  of  intrigue  is  not  among 
them.  And  instead  of  toiling  for  a  future  election, 
as  I  am  recommended  to  do,  my  only  wisdom  is  to 
prepare  myself  for  voluntary,  or  unwilling,  retire 
ment."  On  the  same  topic,  in  February,  1819,  he 
thus  expressed  himself :  4 '  The  practice  which  has 
grown  up  under  the  constitution,  but  contrary  to  its 
spirit,  by  which  members  of  Congress  meet  in  caucus 
and  determine  by  a  majority  the  candidates  for  the 
Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency  to  be  supported  by 
the  whole  meeting,  places  the  President  in  a  state 
of  undue  subserviency  to  the  members  of  the  legisla 
ture ;  which,  connected  with  the  other  practice  of 
reflecting  only  once  the  same  President,  leads  to  a 
thousand  corrupt  cabals  between  the  members  of  Con 
gress  and  heads  of  departments,  who  are  thus  made, 
almost  necessarily,  rival  pretenders  to  the  succession. 
The  only  possible  chance  for  a  head  of  a  department 
to  attain  the  Presidency  is  by  ingratiating  himself 


92  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

with  the  members  of  Congress  ;  and  as  many  of  them 
have  objects  of  their  own  to  obtain,  the  temptation  is 
immense  to  corrupt  coalitions,  and  tends  to  make  all 
the  public  offices  objects  of  bargain  and  sale." 

The  treaty  with  Spain,  by  which  the  United  States 
acquired  the  Floridas,  was  signed  by  Onis  and  Adams 
on  the  22d  of  December,  1819.  To  effect  this  treaty, 
so  full  of  difficulty  and  responsibility,  Mr.  Adams  had 
labored  ever  since  he  had  become  Secretary  of  State. 
His  success  was  to  him  a  subject  of  intense  gratifica 
tion  ;  especially  the  acknowledgment  of  the  right  of 
the  United  States  to  a  definite  line  of  boundary  to  the 
South  Sea.  This  right  was  not  among  our  claims  by 
the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  nor  among  our 
pretensions  under  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  for  that 
gave  the  United  States  only  the  range  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  its  waters.  Mr.  Adams  regarded  the  attain 
ment  of  it  as  his  own  ;  as  he  had  first  proposed  it  on 
his  own  responsibility,  and  introduced  it  in  his  discus 
sions  with  Onis  and  De  Neuville.  Its  final  attainment, 
under  such  circumstances,  was  a  just  subject  of  exult 
ation,  which  was  increased  by  the  change  of  relations 
which  the  treaty  produced  with  Spain,  from  the  high 
est  state  of  exasperation  and  imminent  war,  to  a  fair 
prospect  of  tranquillity  and  secure  peace.  The  treaty 
was  ratified  by  the  President,  with  the  unanimous 
advice  of  the  Senate. 

In  1819  a  committee  of  the  Colonization  Society 
applied  to  the  President  for  the  purchase  of  a  terri 
tory  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  to  which  the  slaves  res 
cued  under  the  act  of  Congress,  then  recently  passed, 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  93 

against  piracy  and  the  slave-trade,  might  be  sent. 
The  subject  being  referred  to  Mr.  Adams,  he  stated 
in  reply  that  it  was  impossible  that  Congress  could 
have  intended  to  authorize  the  purchase  of  territory 
by  that  act,  for  they  had  only  appropriated  for  its 
object  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  which  was  a 
sum  utterly  inadequate  for  the  purchase  of  a  territory 
on  the  coast  of  Africa.  He  declared  also  that  he  had 
no  opinion  of  the  practicability  or  usefulness  of  the 
objects  proposed  by  the  Colonization  Society,  of  estab 
lishing  in  Africa  a  colony  composed  of  the  free  blacks 
sent  from  the  United  States.  "  The  project/'  said 
he,  "is  professedly  formed,  1st,  without  making  use 
of  any  compulsion  on  the  free  people  of  color  to  go  to 
Africa.  2d.  To  encourage  the  emancipation  of  slaves 
by  their  masters.  3d.  To  promote  the  entire  abolition 
of  slavery  ;  and  yet,  4th,  without  in  the  slightest 
degree  affecting  what  they  call  '  a  certain  species  of 
property  in  slaves/  There  are  men  of  all  sorts  and 
descriptions  concerned  in  this  Colonization  Society  : 
some  exceedingly  humane,  weak-minded  men,  who 
really  have  no  other  than  the  professed  objects  in 
view,  and  who  honestly  believe  them  both  useful  and 
attainable  ;  some  speculators  in  official  profits  and 
honors,  which  a  colonial  establishment  would  of  course 
produce  ;  some  speculators  in  political  popularity,  who 
think  to  please  the  abolitionists  by  their  zeal  for  eman 
cipation,  and  the  slaveholders  by  the  flattering  hope 
of  ridding  them  of  the  free  colored  people  at  the  public 
expense  ;  lastly,  some  cunning  slaveholders,  who  see 
that  the  plan  may  be  carried  far  enough  to  produce 


94  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  effect  of  raising  the  market  price  of  their  slaves. 
But,  of  all  its  other  difficulties,  the  most  objectionable 
is  that  it  obviously  includes  the  engrafting  a  colonial 
establishment  upon  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  thereby  an  accession  of  power  to  the  na 
tional  government  transcending  all  its  other  powers." 

The  friends  of  the  measure  urged  in  its  favor  that  it 
had  been  recommended  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia. 
They  enlarged  on  the  happy  condition  of  slaves  in  that 
state,  on  the  kindness  with  which  they  were  treated, 
and  on  the  attachment  subsisting  between  them  and 
their  masters.  They  stated  that  the  feeling  against 
slavery  was  so  strong  that  shortly  after  the  close  of 
the  Revolution  many  persons  had  voluntarily  emanci 
pated  their  slaves.  This  had  introduced  a  class  of 
very  dangerous  people,  —  the  free  blacks,  —  who  lived 
by  pilfering,  corrupted  the  slaves,  and  produced  such 
pernicious  consequences  that  the  Legislature  was 
obliged  to  prohibit  their  further  emancipation  by  law. 
The  important  object  now  was  to  remove  the  free 
blacks,  and  provide  a  place  to  which  the  emancipated 
slaves  might  go  ;  in  which  case,  the  legal  obstacles 
to  emancipation  being  withdrawn,  Virginia,  at  least, 
might  in  time  be  relieved  from  her  black  population. 

A  committee  from  the  Colonial  Society  also  waited  on 
Mr.  Adams,  repeating  the  same  topics,  and  maintain 
ing  that  the  slave-trade  act  contained  a  clear  authority 
to  settle  a  colony  in  Africa ;  and  that  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana,  and  the  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  Colum 
bia  River,  placed  beyond  all  question  the  right  of 
acquiring  territory  as  existing  in  the  government  of 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  95 

the  United  States.  Mr.  Adams,  in  reply,  successfully 
maintained  that  the  slave-trade  act  had  no  reference 
to  the  settlement  of  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Africa  ; 
and  that  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  and  the  settle 
ment  at  the  mouth  of  Columbia  River,  being  in  terri 
tories  contiguous  to  and  in  continuance  of  our  own, 
could  by  no  reason  warrant  the  purchase  of  countries 
beyond  seas,  or  the  establishment  of  a  colonial  system 
of  government  subordinate  to  and  dependent  upon  that 
of  the  United  States. 

In  July,  1819,  Mr.  Adams,  writing  concerning  the 
failure  at  the  preceding  session  of  Missouri  to  obtain 
admission  as  a  state  into  the  Union,  from  the  restric 
tion,  introduced  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
excluding  slavery  from  its  constitution,  thus  expressed 
himself:  "The  attempt  to  introduce  that  restriction 
produced  a  violent  agitation  among  the  members  from 
the  slaveholding  states,  and  it  has  been  communi 
cated  to  the  states  themselves,  and  to  the  territory  of 
Missouri.  The  slave-drivers,  as  usual,  whenever  this 
topic  is  brought  up,  bluster  and  bully,  talk  of  the 
white  slaves  of  the  Eastern  States,  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union,  and  of  oceans  of  blood  ;  and  the  North 
ern  men,  as  usual,  pocket  all  this  hectoring,  sit  down 
in  quiet,  and  submit  to  the  slave-scourging  republi 
canism  of  the  planters." 

Being  urged  to  use  his  influence  that  the  language 
and  policy  of  the  government  should  be  as  moderate 
and  guarded  as  possible,  from  the  consideration  that 
both  England  and  France  were  profoundly  impressed 
with  the  idea  that  we  were  an  ambitious,  encroaching 


96  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

people,  Mr.  Adams  replied:  "I  douBt  if  we  should 
give  ourselves  any  concern  about  it.  Great  Britain, 
who  had  been  vilifying  us  for  twenty  years  as  a  low- 
minded  nation,  with  no  generous  ambition,  no  God  but 
gold,  had  now  changed  her  tune,  and  was  endeavoring 
to  alarm  the  world  at  the  gigantic  grasp  of  our  ambi 
tion.  Spain  and  all  Europe  were  endeavoring  to  do 
the  same  ;  being  startled  at  first  by  our  acquisition  of 
Louisiana,  and  now  by  our  pretensions  to  extend  to  the 
South  Sea.  Nothing  we  can  say  will  remove  this  im 
pression  until  the  world  shall  be  familiarized  with  the 
idea  of  considering  the  continent  of  North  America  to 
be  our  proper  dominion.  From  the  time  we  became  an 
independent  people,  it  was  as  much  a  law  of  nature 
that  this  should  become  our  pretension,  as  that  the  Mis 
sissippi  should  flow  to  the  sea.  Spain  had  pretensions 
on  our  southern,  Great  Britain  on  our  northern  bor 
ders.  It  was  impossible  that  centuries  should  elapse 
without  finding  them  annexed  to  the  United  States  ; 
not  from  any  spirit  of  encroachment  or  of  ambition  on 
our  part,  but  because  it  was  a  physical,  and  moral,  and 
political  absurdity,  that  such  fragments  of  territory, 
with  sovereigns  fifteen  hundred  miles  beyond  sea, 
worthless  and  burdensome  to  their  owners,  should  exist, 
permanently,  contiguous  to  a  great,  powerful,  enter 
prising,  and  rapidly-growing  nation.  Most  of  the  ter 
ritories  of  Spain  in  our  neighborhood  had  become  ours 
by  fair  purchase.  This  rendered  it  more  unavoidable 
that  the  remainder  of  the  continent  should  ultimately 
be  ours.  It  was  but  very  lately  we  had  seen  this 
ourselves,  or  that  we  had  avowed  the  pretension  of 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  97 

extending  to  the  South  Sea  ;  and,  until  Europe  finds 
it  to  be  a  settled  geographical  element  that  the  United 
States  and  North  America  are  identical,  any  effort  on 
our  part  to  reason  the  world  out  of  the  belief  that  we 
are  an  ambitious  people  will  have  no  other  effect 
than  to  convince  them  that  we  add  to  our  ambition 
hypocrisy." 

Concerning  the  discords  which  arose  in  the  cabinet, 
on  policy  to  be  pursued,  Mr.  Adams  remarked:  "I 
see  them  with  pain,  but  they  are  sown  in  the  practice 
which  the  Virginia  Presidents  have  taken  so  much 
pains  to  engraft  on  the  constitution  of  the  Union, 
making  it  a  principle  that  no  President  can  be  more 
than  twice  elected,  and  whoever  is  not  thrown  out 
after  one  term  of  service  must  decline  being  a  candi 
date  after  the  second.  This  is  not  a  principle  of  the 
constitution,  and  I  am  satisfied  it  ought  not  to  be. 
Its  inevitable  consequence  is  to  make  every  adminis 
tration  a  scene  of  continuous  and  furious  electioneer 
ing  for  the  succession  to  the  Presidency.  It  was  so 
through  the  whole  of  Mr.  Madison's  administration, 
and  it  is  so  now." 

The  signature  of  the  treaty  for  the  acquisition  of 
Florida,  sanctioned  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Sen 
ate,  had  greatly  contributed  to  the  apparent  popularity 
of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration.  But  the  postpone 
ment  of  its  ratification  by  Spain  soon  clouded  the 
prospect ;  and  the  question  whether  Missouri  should 
be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  or  free  state,  in 
which  Mr.  Adams  took  a  deep  interest,  immediately 
rendered  the  political  atmosphere  dark  and  stormy. 


98      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

"  There  is  now/'  Mr.  Adams  observed,  "every  ap 
pearance  that  the  slave  question  will  be  carried  by  the* 
superior  ability  of  the  slavery  party.  For  this  much 
is  certain,  that  if  institutions  are  to  be  judged  by  their 
results  in  the  composition  of  the  councils  of  the  Union, 
the  slaveholders  are  much  more  ably  represented  than 
the  simple  freemen.  With  the  exception  of  Kufus 
King,  there  is  not,  in  either  house  of  Congress,  a 
member  from  the  free  states  able  to  cope  in  powers  of 
the  mind  with  William  Pinkney  and  James  Barbour. 
In  the  House  of  Representatives  the  freemen  have 
none  to  contend  on  equal  terms  either  with  John  Ran 
dolph  or  Clay.  Another  misfortune  to  the  free  party 
is  that  some  of  their  ablest  men  are  either  on  this 
question  with  their  adversaries,  or  lukewarm  in  the 
cause.  The  slave  men  have  indeed  a  deeper  imme 
diate  stake  in  the  issue  than  the  partisans  of  freedom. 
Their  passions  and  interests  are  more  profoundly  agi 
tated,  and  they  have  stronger  impulses  to  active 
energy  than  their  antagonists,  whose  only  individual 
interest  in  this  case  arises  from  its  bearing  on  the 
balance  of  political  power  between  the  North  and 
South." 

The  debate  on  this  subject  commenced  in  the  Sen 
ate.  In  the  course  of  January  and  February,  1820, 
Rufus  King,  senator  from  New  York,  delivered  two 
of  the  most  well-considered  and  powerful  speeches 
that  this  Missouri  question  elicited.  The  remarks  they 
drew  forth  from  Mr.  Adams  render  it  proper  that  some 
idea  of  their  general  course  should  be  stated,  although  it 
is  impossible  that  any  abstract  can  do  justice  to  them. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUIXCY    ADAMS.  99 

Disclaiming  all  intention  to  encourage  or  assent  to  any 
measure  that  would  affect  the  security  of  property  in 
slaves,  or  tend  to  disturb  the  political  adjustment 
which  the  constitution  had  established  concerning 
them,  he  enters  at  large  into  the  power  of  Congress  to 
make  and  determine  whatever  regulations  are  needful 
concerning  the  territories.  He  maintained  that  the 
power  of  admitting  new  states  is  by  the  constitution 
referred  wholly  to  the  discretion  of  Congress  ;  that 
the  citizens  of  the  several  states  have  rights  and 
duties,  differing  from  each  other  in  the  respective 
states  ;  that  those  concerning  slavery  are  the  most 
remarkable  —  it  being  permitted  in  some  states,  and 
prohibited  in  others  ;  that  the  question  concerning 
slavery  in  the  old  states  is  already  settled.  Congress 
had  no  power  to  interfere  with  or  change  whatever  has 
been  thus  settled.  The  slave  states  are  free  to  con 
tinue  or  abolish  slavery.  The  constitution  contains 
no  provision  concerning  slavery  in  a  new  state  ; 
Congress,  therefore,  may  make  it  a  condition  of  the 
admission  of  a  new7  state  that  slavery  shall  forever  be 
prohibited  within  it. 

Mr.  King  then  enters  upon  the  history  of  the  United 
States  relative  to  this  subject,  and  to  the  rights  of  the 
citizens  of  Missouri  resulting  from  the  terms  of  the 
cession  of  Louisiana,  and  of  the  act  admitting  it  into 
the  Union.  From  this  recapitulation  and  illustration 
he  demonstrates,  beyond  refutation,  that  Congress 
possesses  the  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  Missouri. 
The  only  question  now  remaining  was  to  show  that  it 
ought  to  exclude  it.  In  discussing  this  point,  Mr 


100  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

King  passes  over  in  silence  arguments  which  to  some 
might  appear  decisive,  but  the  use  of  which  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  would  call  up  feelings  that 
he  apprehended  might  disturb  or  defeat  the  impartial 
consideration  of  the  subject. 

Under  this  self-restraint  he  observed  that  slavery, 
unhappily,  exists  in  the  United  States  ;  that  enlight 
ened  men  in  the  states  where  it  is  permitted,  and 
everywhere  out  of  them,  regret  its  existence  among 
us,  and  seek  for  the  means  of  limiting  and  of  eradicat 
ing  it.  He  then  proceeds  to  state  and  reason  concern 
ing  the  difficulties  in  the  apportionment  of  taxes  among 
the  respective  states  under  the  old  confederation,  and 
in  the  convention  for  the  formation  of  the  constitution, 
which  resulted  in  the  provision  that  direct  taxes 
should  be  apportioned  among  the  states  according  to 
the  whole  number  of  free  persons  and  three  fifths  of 
the  slaves  which  they  might  respectively  contain. 
The  effect  of  this  provision  he  then  analyzes,  and 
shows  that,  in  consequence  of  it,  five  free  persons  in 
Virginia  have  as  much  power  in  the  choice  of  repre 
sentatives,  and  in  the  appointment  of  presidential 
electors,  as  seven  free  persons  in  any  of  the  states  in 
which  slavery  does  not  exist.  At  the  time  of  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  no  one  anticipated  the 
fact  that  the  whole  of  the  revenue  of  the  United  States 
would  be  derived  from  indirect  taxes  ;  but  it  was 
believed  that  a  part  of  the  contribution  to  the  common 
treasury  would  be  apportioned  among  the  states,  by 
the  rule  for  the  apportionment  of  representatives. 
The  states  in  which  slavery  is  prohibited  ultimately, 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  101 

though  with  reluctance,  acquiesced  in  the  dispropor 
tionate  number  of  representatives  and  electors  that  was 
secured  to  the  slaveholding  states.  The  concession 
was  at  the  time  believed  to  be  a  great  one,  and  has 
proved  the  greatest  which  was  made  to  secure  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution.  Great  as  is  this  conces 
sion,  it  was  definite,  and  its  full  extent  was  compre 
hended.  It  was  a  settlement  between  the  thirteen 
states,  and  not  applicable  to  new  states  which  Con 
gress  might  be  willing  to  admit  into  the  Union. 

The  equality  of  rights,  which  includes  an  equality 
of  burdens,  is  a  vital  principle  in  our  theory  of  gov 
ernment.  The  effect  of  the  constitution  has  been 
obvious  in  the  preponderance  it  has  given  to  the  slave- 
holding  states  over  the  other  states.  But  the  exten 
sion  of  this  disproportionate  power  to  the  new  states 
would  be  unjust  and  odious.  The  states  whose  power 
would  be  abridged  and  whose  burdens  would  be 
increased  by  the  measure  would  not  be  expected  to 
consent  to  it.  The  existence  of  slavery  impairs  the 
industry  and  power  of  a  nation.  In  a  country  where 
manual  labor  is  performed  by  slaves,  that  of  freemen 
is  dishonored.  In  case  of  foreign  war,  or  domestic 
insurrection,  slaves  not  only  do  not  add  to,  but  dimin 
ish  the  faculty  of  self-defence. 

If  Missouri,  and  the  states  formed  to  the  west  of 
the  River  Mississippi,  are  permitted  to  introduce  and 
establish  slavery,  the  repose,  if  not  the  security,  of 
the  Union,  may  be  endangered.  All  the  states  south 
of  the  River  Ohio,  and  west  of  Pennsylvania  and  Del 
aware,  will  be  peopled  with  slaves  ;  and  the  establish- 


102     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

merit  of  new  states  west  of  the  River  Mississippi  will 
serve  to  extend  slavery,  instead  of  freedom,  over  that 
boundless  region.  But,  if  slavery  be  excluded  from 
Missouri  and  the  other  new  states  which  may  be  formed 
in  that  quarter,  not  only  will  the  slave-markets  be 
broken  up,  and  the  principles  of  freedom  be  extended 
and  strengthened,  but  an  exposed  and  important  fron 
tier  will  present  a  barrier  which  will  check  and  keep 
back  foreign  assailants,  who  may  be  as  brave,  and,  as 
we  hope,  as  free  as  ourselves.  Surrounded  in  this 
manner  by  connected  bodies  of  freemen,  the  states 
where  slavery  is  allowed  will  be  made  more  secure 
against  domestic  insurrection,  and  less  liable  to  be 
affected  by  what  may  take  place  in  the  neighboring 
colonies. 

At  the  delivery  of  these  speeches  Mr.  Adams  was 
present,  and  thus  expressed  his  opinion  in  writing  : 
"I  heard  Mr.  King  on  what  is  called  the  Missouri 
question.  His  manner  was  dignified,  grave,  ear 
nest,  but  not  rapid  or  vehement.  There  was  noth 
ing  new  in  his  argument,  but  he  unravelled  with 
ingenious  and  subtle  analysis  many  of  the  sophistical 
tissues  of  slaveholders.  He  laid  down  the  position 
of  the  natural  liberty  of  man,  and  its  incompatibility 
with  slavery  in  any  shape  ;  he  also  questioned  the 
constitutional  right  of  the  President  and  Senate  to 
make  the  Louisiana  treaty  ;  but  he  did  not  dwell  upon 
those  points,  nor  draw  the  consequences  from  them 
which  I  should  think  important.  He  spoke  on  that 
subject,  however,  with  great  power,  and  the  great 
slaveholders  in  the  house  gnawed  their  lips  and 
clenched  their  fists  as  thev  heard  him." 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  103 

4 'At  our  evening  parties,"  he  adds,  "we  hear  of 
nothing  but  the  Missouri  question  and  Mr.  King's 
speeches.  The  slaveholders  cannot  hear  of  them 
without  being  seized  with  the  cramps.  They  call 
them  seditious  and  inflammatory,  which  was  far  from 
being  their  character.  Never,  since  human  sentiment 
and  human  conduct  were  influenced  by  human  speech, 
was  there  a  theme  for  eloquence  like  the  free  side  of 
this  question,  now  before  the  Congress  of  the  Union. 
By  what  fatality  does  it  happen  that  all  the  most  elo 
quent  orators  are  on  its  slavish  side  ?  There  is  a 
great  mass  of  cool  judgment  and  of  plain  sense  on 
the  side  of  freedom  and  humanity,  but  the  ardent 
spirits  and  passions  are  on  the  side  of  oppression. 
0  !  if  but  one  man  could  arise  with  a  genius  capable 
of  comprehending,  a  heart  capable  of  supporting,  and 
an  utterance  capable  of  communicating,  those  eternal 
truths  which  belong  to  the  question, —  to  lay  bare  in  all 
its  nakedness  that  outrage  upon  the  goodness  of  God, 
human  slavery,  —  now  is  the  time,  and  this  is  the 
occasion,  upon  which  such  a  man  would  perform  the 
duties  of  an  angel  upon  earth." 

About  this  time  Mr.  Calhoun  remarked  to  Mr. 
Adams,  that  he  did  not  think  the  slave  question, 
then  pending  in  Congress,  would  produce  a  dis 
solution  of  the  Union,  but,  if  it  should,  the  South 
would,  from  necessity,  be  compelled  to  form  an  alli 
ance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  Great  Britain. 
Mr.  Adams  asked  if  that  would  not  be  returning  to 
the  old  colonial  state.  Calhoun  said,  Yes,  pretty 
much,  but  it  would  be  forced  upon  them.  Mr.  Adams 


104     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

inquired  whether  he  thought,  if  by  the  effect  of  this 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  the  population  of 
the  North  should  be  cut  off  from  its  natural  outlet 
upon  the  ocean,  it  would  fall  back  upon  its  rocks, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  to  starve  ;  or  whether  it  would 
retain  its  power  of  locomotion  to  move  southward  by 
land.  Mr.  Calhoun  replied,  that  in  the  latter  event 
it  would  be  necessary  for  the  South  to  make  their 
communities  all  military.  Mr.  Adams  pressed  the 
conversation  no  further,  but  remarked  :  "If  the  disso 
lution  of  the  Union  should  result  from  the  slave  ques 
tion,  it  is  as  obvious  as  anything  that  can  be  fore 
seen  of  futurity,  that  it  must  shortly  afterwards  be 
followed  by  an  universal  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 
A  more  remote,  but  perhaps  not  less  certain  conse 
quence,  would  be  the  extirpation  of  the  African  race 
in  this  continent,  by  the  gradually  bleaching  process 
of  intermixture,  where  the  white  is  already  so  pre 
dominant,  and  by  the  deslructive  process  of  emanci 
pation  ;  which,  like  all  great  religious  and  political 
reformations,  is  terrible  in  its  means,  though  happy 
and  glorious  in  its  end.  Slavery  is  the  great  and  foul 
stain  on  the  American  Union,  and  it  is  a  contempla 
tion  worthy  of  the  most  exalted  soul,  whether  its 
total  abolition  is  not  practicable.  This  object  is  vast 
in  its  compass,  awful  in  its  prospects,  sublime  and 
beautiful  in  its  issue.  A  life  devoted  to  it  would  be 
nobly  spent  or  sacrificed." 

On  the  26th  of  February,  Mr.  John  Randolph 
spoke  on  the  Missouri  question  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  between  three  and  four  hours,  on  which 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  105 

speech  Mr.  Adams  observed:  "As.  usual,  it  had 
neither  beginning,  middle,  nor  end.  Egotism,  Vir 
ginian  aristocracy,  slave-purging  liberty,  religion,  lit 
erature,  science,  wit,  fancy,  generous  feelings,  and 
malignant  passions,  constitute  a  chaos  in  his  mind, 
from  which  nothing  orderly  can  ever  flow.  Clay,  the 
Speaker,  twice  called  him  to  order ;  which  proved 
useless,  for  he  can  no  more  keep  order  than  he  can 
keep  silence."  On  the  1st  of  March  the  Missouri 
question  came  to  a  crisis  in  Congress.  The  majorities 
in  both  branches  were  on  opposite  sides,  and  in  each 
a  committee  was  raised  to  effect  a  compromise.  This 
endeavor  resulted  in  the  abandonment  by  the  House  of 
Kepresentatives  of  the  principle  it  had  inserted,  that 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  the  Missouri  consti 
tution,  and  in  annexing  a  section  that  slavery  should 
be  prohibited  in  the  remaining  parts  of  the  Louis 
iana  .cession,  north  of  latitude  thirty-six  degrees  thirty 
minutes.  This  compromise,  as  it  was  called,  was 
finally  carried  in  the  House  of  Kepresentatives,  by  a 
vote  of  ninety  to  thirty-seven,  after  several  success 
ive  days,  and  almost  nights,  of  stormy  debate. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  a  member  of  the  house  from 
Massachusetts  told  Mr.  Adams  that  John  Kandolph 
had  made  a  motion  that  morning  to  reconsider  one 
of  the  votes  of  yesterday  upon  the  Missouri  bill,  and 
of  the  trickery  by  which  his  motion  was  defeated. 
The  Speaker  (Mr.  Clay)  declared  it  when  first  made 
not  in  order,  the  journal  of  yesterday's  proceedings 
not  having  been  then  read  ;  and  while  they  were 
reading  the  journal,  the  clerk  of  the  house  carried  the 


106  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

bill  as  passed  by  the  house  to  the  Senate  ;  so  that, 
when  Randolph,  after  the  reading  of  the  journal, 
renewed  his  motion,  it  was  too  late,  the  papers  being 
no  longer  in  the  possession  of  the  house.  "  And  so 
it  is,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "that  a  law  perpetuating 
slavery  in  Missouri,  and  perhaps  in  North  America, 
has  been  smuggled  through  both  houses  of  Congress. 
I  have  been  convinced,  from  the  first  starting  of  this 
question,  that  it  could  not  end  otherwise.  The  fault 
is  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  has 
sanctioned  a  dishonorable  compromise  with  slavery. 
There  is  henceforth  no  remedy  for  it  but  a  reorganiza 
tion  of  the  Union,  to  effect  which  a  concert  of  all  the 
white  states  is  indispensable.  Whether  that  can  ever 
be  accomplished  is  doubtful.  It  is  a  contemplation 
not  very  creditable  to  human  nature  that  the  cement 
of  common  interest,  produced  by  slavery,  is  stronger 
and  more  solid  than  that  of  unmingled  freedom..  In 
this  instance  the  slave  states  have  clung  together  in 
one  unbroken  phalanx,  and  have  been  victorious  by  the 
means  of  accomplices  and  deserters  from  the  ranks  of 
freedom.  Time  only  can  show  whether  the  contest 
may  ever,  with  equal  advantage,  be  renewed  ;  but,  so 
polluted  are  all  the  streams  of  legislation  in  regions 
of  slavery,  that  this  bill  has  been  obtained  by  two 
as  unprincipled  artifices  as  dishonesty  ever  devised. 
One,  by  coupling  it  as  an  appendage  to  the  bill  for 
admitting  Maine  into  the  Union  ;  the  other,  by  the 
perpetrating  this  outrage  by  the  Speaker  on  the  rules 
of  the  house/' 

Mr.  Calhoun,  after  a  debate  in  the  cabinet  on  the 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  107 

Missouri  question,  said  to  Mr.  Adams  that  the  prin 
ciples  avowed  by  him  were  just  and  noble,  but  in  the 
Southern  country,  whenever  they  were  mentioned,  they 
were  always  understood  as  applying  to  white  men. 
Domestic  labor  was  confined  to  the  blacks ;  and  such 
was  the  prejudice  that,  if  he  were  to  keep  a  white  ser 
vant  in  his  house,  although  he  was  the  most  popular 
man  in  his  district,  his  character  and  reputation  would 
be  irretrievably  ruined.  Mr.  Adams  replied  that 
this  confounding  the  ideas  of  servitude  and  labor  was 
one  of  the  bad  effects  of  slavery.  Mr.  Calhoun 
thought  it  was  attended  with  many  excellent  conse 
quences.  It  did  not  apply  to  all  sorts  of  labor  ;  not, 
for  example,  to  farming.  He,  himself,  had  often  held 
the  plough.  So  had  his  father.  Manufacturing  and 
mechanical  labor  was  not  degrading.  It  was  only 
menial  labor,  the  proper  work  of  slaves.  No  white 
person  could  descend  to  that.  And  it  was  the  best 
guarantee  of  equality  among  the  whites.  It  produced 
an  unvarying  level  among  them.  It  not  only  did  not 
excite,  but  did  not  admit  of  inequalities,  by  which 
one  white  man  could  domineer  over  another. 

Mr.  Adams  replied,  that  he  could  not  see  things  in 
the  same  light.  "It  is  in  truth  all  perverted  senti 
ment  ;  mistaking  labor  for  slavery,  and  dominion  for 
freedom.  The  discussion  of  this  Missouri  question  has 
betrayed  the  secret  of  their  souls.  In  the  abstract  they 
admit  slavery  to  be  an  evil.  They  disclaim  all  partici 
pation  in  the  introduction  of  it,  and  cast  it  all  on  the 
shoulders  of  '  old  grandame  Great  Britain/  But,  when 
probed  to  the  quick  upon  it,  they  show  at  the  bottom 


108  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

of  their  souls  pride  and  vain-glory  in  their  very  con 
dition  of  masterdom.  They  fancy  themselves  more 
generous  and  noble-hearted  than  the  plain  freemen, 
who  labor  for  subsistence.  They  look  down  on  the 
simplicity  of  Yankee  manners,  because  they  have  no 
habits  of ,  overbearing  like  theirs,  and  cannot  treat 
negroes  like  dogs.  It  is  among  the  evils  of  slavery 
that  it  taints  the  very  source  of  moral  principle.  It 
establishes  false  estimates  of  virtue  and  vice  ;  for 
what  can  be  more  false  and  heartless  than  this  doc 
trine,  which  makes  the  first  and  holiest  rights  of 
humanity  to  depend  on  the  color  of  the  skin?  It 
perverts  human  reason,  and  reduces  man  endowed 
with  logical  powers  to  maintain  that  slavery  is  sanc 
tioned  by  the  Christian  religion ;  that  slaves  are 
happy  and  contented  in  their  condition  ;  that  between 
the  master  and  slave  there  are  ties  of  mutual  attach 
ment  and  affection ;  that  the  virtues  of  the  master 
are  refined  and  exalted  by  the  degradation  of  the 
slave  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  vent  execrations 
on  the  slave-trade,  curse  Great  Britain  for  having 
given  them  slaves,  burn  at  the  stake  negroes  con 
victed  of  crimes  for  the  terror  of  the  example,  and 
writhe  in  agonies  of  fear  at  the  very  mention  of 
human  rights  as  applicable  to  men  of  color/' 

"The  impression  produced  on  my  mind,"  continued 
Mr.  Adams,  "by  the  progress  of  this  discussion,  is, 
that  the  bargain  between  freedom  and  slavery  con 
tained  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  is 
morally  and  politically  vicious  ;  inconsistent  with  the 
principles  on  which  alone  our  Revolution  can  be 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  109 

justified ;  cruel  and  oppressive,  by  riveting  the  chains 
of  slavery,  by  pledging  the  faith  of  freedom  to  main 
tain  and  perpetuate  the  tyranny  of  the  master ;  and 
grossly  unequal  and  impolitic,  by  admitting  that  slaves 
are  at  once  enemies  to  be  kept  in  subjection,  property 
to  be  secured  and  returned  to  their  owners,  and  per 
sons  not  to  be  represented  themselves,  but  for  whom 
their  masters  are  privileged  with  nearly  a  double  share 
of  representation.  The  consequence  has  been  that 
this  slave  representation  has  governed  the  Union. 
Benjamin's  portion  above  his  brethren  has  ravined  as 
a  wolf.  In  the  morning  he  has  devoured  the  prey, 
and  in  the  evening  has  divided  the  spoil.  It  would 
be  no  difficult  matter  to  prove,  by  reviewing  the 
history  of  the  Union  under  this  constitution,  that 
almost  everything  which  has  contributed  to  the  honor 
and  welfare  of  this  nation  has  been  accomplished  in 
despite  of  them,  or  forced  upon  them  ;  and  that  every 
thing  unpropitious  and  dishonorable,  including  the 
blunders  of  their  adversaries,  may  be  traced  to  them. 
I  have  favored  this  Missouri  compromise,  believing  it 
to  be  all  that  could  be  effected  under  the  present  con 
stitution,  and  from  extreme  unwillingness  to  put  the 
Union  at  hazard.  But  perhaps  it  would  have  been  a 
wiser  and  bolder  course  to  have  persisted  in  the 
restriction  on  Missouri,  until  it  should  have  terminated 
in  a  convention  of  the  states  to  revise  and  amend  the 
constitution.  This  would  have  produced  a  new  Union 
of  thirteen  or  fourteen  states  unpolluted  with  slavery, 
with  a  great  and  glorious  object,  that  of  rallying  to 
their  standard  the  other  states,  by  the  universal 


110  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY     ADAMS. 

emancipation  of  their  slaves.  If  the  Union  must  be 
dissolved,  slavery  is  precisely  the  question  upon  which 
it  ought  to  break.  For  the  present,  however,  this 
contest  is  laid  asleep." 

Again  he  says:  "Mr.  King  is  deeply  mortified  at 
the  issue  of  the  Missouri  question,  and  very  naturally 
feels  resentful  at  the  imputations  of  the  slaveholders, 
that  his  motives  on  this  occasion  have  been  merely 
personal  aggrandizement,  — '  close  ambition  varnished 
o'er  with  zeal/  The  imputation  of  bad  motives  is  one 
of  the  most  convenient  weapons  of  political,  and  indeed 
of  every  sort  of  controversy.  It  came  originally  from 
the  devil.  —  *  Doth  Job  serve  God  for  naught?  '  The 
selfish  and  the  social  passions  are  intermingled  in  the 
conduct  of  every  man  acting  in  a  public  capacity.  It 
is  right  that  they  should  be  so.  And  it  is  no  just 
cause  of  reproach  to  any  man,  that,  in  promoting  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power  the  public  good,  he  is  desir 
ous,  at  the  same  time,  of  promoting  his  own.  There 
are,  no  doubt,  hypocrites  of  humanity  as  well  as  of 
religion  ;  men  with  cold  hearts  and  warm  professions, 
trading  upon  benevolence,  and  using  justice  and  vir 
tue  only  as  stakes  upon  the  turn  of  a  card  or  the  cast 
of  a  die.  Bat  this  sort  of  profligacy  belongs  to  a 
state  of  society  more  deeply  corrupted  than  ours. 
Such  characters  are  rare  among  us.  Many  of  our 
public  men  have  principles  too  pliable  to  popular 
impulse,  but  few  are  deliberately  dishonest ;  and  there 
is  not  a  man  in  the  Union  of  purer  integrity  than 
Rufus  King. 

"  The  most  remarkable  circumstance  in  the  history 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  Ill 

of  the  final  decision  of  the  Missouri  question  is  that  it 
was  ultimately  carried  against  the  opinions,  wishes, 
and  interests,  of  the  free  states,  by  the  votes  of  their 
own  members.  They  had  a  decided  majority  in  both 
houses  of  Congress,  but  lost  the  vote  by  disunion 
among  themselves.  The  slaveholders  clung  together, 
without  losing  one  vote.  Many  of  them,  and  almost 
all  the  Virginians,  held  out  to  the  last,  even  against 
compromise.  The  cause  of  the  closer  union  on  the 
slave  side  is  that  the  question  affected  the  individual 
interest  of  every  slaveholding  member,  and  of  almost 
every  one  of  his  constituents.  On  the  other  side,  indi 
vidual  interests  were  not  implicated  in  the  decision  at 
all.  The  impulses  were  purely  republican  principle 
and  the  rights  of  human  nature.  The  struggle  for 
political  power,  and  geographical  jealousy,  may  fairly 
be  supposed  to  have  operated  equally  on  both  sides. 
The  result  affords  an  illustration  of  the  remark,  how 
much  more  keen  and  powerful  the  impulse  is  of  per 
sonal  interest  than  is  that  of  any  general  consideration 
of  benevolence  and  humanity." 

The  compromise,  by  which  Missouri  was  admitted 
into  the  Union,  did  not  finally  settle  the  question  in 
Congress.  At  the  next  session  it  reappeared,  in 
consequence  of  the  insertion  into  the  constitution  of 
Missouri  of  an  article  declaring  it  to  be  the  duty  of 
the  Legislature  to  pass  laws  prohibiting  free  negroes 
and  persons  of  color  from  coming  into  Missouri ; 
which  declaration  was  directly  repugnant  to  that 
article  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  which 
provides  that  the  citizens  of  each  state  shall  be  entitled 


112     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  othei 
states.  The  only  mode  of  getting  out  of  this  difficulty, 
said  Mr.  Adams,  was  "  for  Congress  to  pass  a  reso 
lution  declaring  the  State  of  Missouri  to  be  admitted 
from  and  after  the  time  when  the  article  repugnant 
to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  should  be 
expunged  from  its  constitution.  This  question  wras 
much  more  clear  against  Missouri  than  was  that  of 
their  first  admission  into  the  Union  ;  but  the  people 
of  the  North,  like  many  of  their  representatives 
in  Congress,  began  to  give  indications  of  a  disposition 
to  flinch  from  the  consequences  of  this  question,  and 
to  be  unwilling  to  bear  their  leaders  out." 

Mr.  Adams,  in  conversation  with  one  of  the  senators 
of  the  South,  observed,  that  "  the  article  in  the  Mis 
souri  constitution  is  directly  repugnant  to  the  rights 
reserved  to  every  citizen  in  the  Union  in  the  consti 
tution  of  the  United  States.  Its  purport  is  to  disfran 
chise  all  the  people  of  color  who  were  citizens  of  the 
free  states.  The  Legislatures  of  those  states  are  bound 
in  duty  to  protect  the  rights  of  their  own  citizens  ;  and 
if  Congress,  by  the  admission  of  Missouri  with  that 
clause  in  her  constitution,  should  sanction  this  outrage 
upon  those  rights,  the  states  a  portion  of  whose  citizens 
should  be  thus  cast  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Union  would 
be  bound  to  vindicate  them  by  retaliation.  If  I  were 
a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  one  of  these  states,  I 
would  move  for  a  declaratory  act,  that  so  long  as  the 
article  in  the  constitution  of  Missouri,  depriving  tho 
colored  citizens  of  the  state  (say)  of  Massachusetts  of 
their  rights  as  citizens  of  the  United  States  within 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  113 

the  State  of  Missouri,  should  subsist,  so  long  the  white 
citizens  of  Missouri  should  be  held  as  aliens  within  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  not  entitled  to 
claim  or  enjoy,  within  the  same,  any  right  or  privilege 
of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States/'  And  Mr.  Adams 
said  he  would  go  further,  and  declare  that  Congress, 
by  their  sanction  of  the  Missouri  constitution,  by 
admitting  that  state  into  the  Union  without  excepting 
against  that  article  which  disfranchised  a  portion  of  the 
citizens  of  Massachusetts,  had  violated  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States.  Therefore,  until  that  portion 
of  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts  whose  rights  were  vio 
lated  by  the  article  in  the  Missouri  compromise  should 
be  redintegrated  in  the  full  enjoyment  and  possession 
of  those  rights,  no  clause  or  article  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States  should,  within  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  be  so  understood  as  to  authorize  any 
person  whatsoever  to  claim  the  property  or  possession 
of  a  human  being  as  a  slave  ;  and  he  would  prohibit 
by  law  the  delivery  of  any  fugitive  upon  the  claim  of 
his  master.  All  which,  he  said,  should  be  done,  not  to 
violate,  but  to  redeem  from  violation,  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  indeed  to  be  expected 
that  such  laws  would  again  be  met  by  retaliatory 
laws  of  Missouri  and  the  other  slaveholding  states, 
and  the  consequences  would  be  a  dissolution  de  facto 
of  the  Union  ;  but  that  dissolution  would  be  com 
menced  by  the  article  in  the  Missouri  constitution. 
That  article,"  declared  Mr.  Adams,  "is  itself  a  dis 
solution  of  the  Union.  If  acquiesced  in,  it  will  change 
the  terms  of  the  federal  compact  —  change  its  terms 


114     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

by  robbing  thousands  of  citizens  of  their  rights.  And 
what  citizens  ?  The  poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  help 
less,  already  cursed  by  the  mere  color  of  their  skin; 
already  doomed  by  their  complexion  to  drudge  in 
the  lowest  offices  of  society  ;  excluded  by  their  color 
from  all  the  refined  enjoyments  of  life  accessible  to 
others ;  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  a  liberal  edu 
cation, —  from  the  bed,  the  table,  and  all  the  social 
comforts,  of  domestic  life.  This  barbarous  article 
deprives  them  of  the  little  remnant  of  right  yet  left 
them  —  their  rights  as  citizens  and  as  men.  Weak 
•and  defenceless  as  they  are,  so  much  the  more  sacred 
the  obligation  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  states  to 
which  they  belong  to  defend  their  lawful  rights.  I 
would  defend  them,  should  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 
be  the  consequence  ;  for  it  would  be,  not  to  the  de 
fence,  but  to  the  violation  of  their  rights,  to  which  all 
the  consequences  would  be  imputable  ;  and,  if  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union  must  come,  let  it  come  from 
no  other  cause  but  this.  If  slavery  be  the  destined 
sword,  in  the  hand  of  the  destroying  angel,  which  is 
to  sever  the  ties  of  this  Union,  the  same  sword  will 
cut  asunder  the  bonds  of  slavery  itself/* 

"In  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  the  4th  of 
December/'  writes  Mr.  Adams,  "Mr.  Eustis,  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  made  a  speech  against  the  resolution  for 
admitting  Missouri  into  the  Union  without  condi 
tion,  and  it  was  rejected,  ninety-three  to  seventy-nine. 
On  the  19th  of  December  he  offered  a  resolution 
admitting  Missouri  into  the  Union  conditionally ; 
namely,  «  from  and  after  the  time  when  they  shall 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  115 

have  expunged  from  their  constitution  the  article 
repugnant  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States/ 
On  the  24th  of  January,  1821,  this  resolution  was 
rejected  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  forty-six  to 
six.  It  satisfies  neither  party.  It  is  too  strong  for 
the  slave  party,  and  not  strong  enough  for  the  free 
party."  In  December  and  January  the  subject  was 
ardently  debated  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and,  after  commitment  and  various  attempts  at  amend 
ment,  on  the  loth  of  February  the  report  of  a  com 
mittee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  favor  of 
admitting  Missouri  into  the  Union,  in  conformity  with 
the  resolution  which  had  passed  the  Senate,  was 
rejected,  eighty-five  to  eighty. 

The  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
in  counting  the  votes  for  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  are  thus  stated  by  Mr.  Adams  :  "  On  the  14th 
of  February,  while  the  electoral  votes  for  President 
and  Vice-President  were  counting,  those  of  Missouri 
were  objected  to  because  Missouri  was  not  a  state  of 
the  Union — on  which  a  tumultuous  scene  arose. 
A  Southern  member  moved,  in  face  of  the  rejection 
by  a  majority  qf  the  House,  that  Missouri  is  one  of 
the  states  of  this  Union,  and  that  her  votes  ought  to 
be  counted.  Mr.  Clay  avoided  the  question  by  mov 
ing  that  it  should  lie  on  the  table,  and  then  that  a 
message  should  be  sent  to  the  Senate  informing  them 
that  the  House  were  now  ready  to  proceed  in  continu 
ing  the  enumeration  of  the  electoral  votes,  according 
to  the  joint  resolution  ;  which  was  ordered.  The 
Senate  accordingly  proceeded  to  open  the  votes  of 


116     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Missouri,  and  they  were  counted.  The  result  was 
declared  by  the  President  of  the  Senate,  in  the  alter 
native  that  if  the  votes  of  Missouri  were  counted  there 
were  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  votes  for  James  Mon 
roe  as  President,  and  two  hundred  and  eighteen  votes 
for  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  as  Vice-President ;  and  if 
not  counted,  there  would  be  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  votes  for  James  Monroe  as  President,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifteen  for  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  as  Vice- 
President  ;  but,  in  either  event,  both  were  elected  to 
their  respective  offices.  He  therefore  declared  them 
to  be  so  elected. 

"  After  the  two  houses  had'separated,  Mr.  Randolph 
moved  two  resolutions  :  one,  that  the  electoral  votes 
of  the  State  of  Missouri  had  been  counted,  and  formed 
part  of  the  majorities  by  which  the  President  and 
Vice-President  had  been  elected  ;  and  the  other,  that 
the  result  of  the  election  had  not  been  declared  by 
the  presiding  officer  conformably  to  the  constitution 
and  the  law,  and  therefore  the  whole  proceedings  had 
been  irregular  and  illegal.  This  motion,  after  a  very 
disorderly  debate,  was  disposed  of  by  adjournment. 
Mr.  Randolph  was  for  bringing  Missouri  into  the  Union 
by  storm,  and  by  bullying  a  majority  of  the  House 
into  a  minority.  The  only  result  was  disorder  and 
tumult. 

"  On  the  23d  of  February,  the  Missouri  question 
being  still  undecided,  on  a  motion  of  Mr.  Clay,  the 
House  of  Representatives  chose  by  ballot  a  committee 
of  twenty-three  members,  who  were  joined  by  a  com 
mittee  of  seven  from  the  Senate.  Their  object  was  a 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  117 

last  attempt  to  devise  a  plan  for  admitting  Missouri 
into  the  Union.  On  the  26th,  the  committee  proposed 
a  conditional  admission,  upon  terms  more  humiliating 
to  the  people  of  Missouri  than  it  would  have  been  to 
require  that  they  should  expunge  the  exceptionable  ar 
ticle  from  their  constitution  ;  for  they  declared  it  a  fun 
damental  condition  of  their  admission  that  the  article 
should  never  be  construed  to  authorize  the  passage  of 
any  law  by  which  any  citizen  of  the  states  of  this  Union 
should  be  excluded  from  his  privileges  under  the  con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  ;  and  they  required  that 
the  Legislature  of  the  state,  by  a  solemn  public  act, 
should  declare  the  assent  of  the  state  to  this  condition, 
and  transmit  a  copy  of  the  act,  by  the  first  Monday  of 
November  ensuing,  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  But,  in  substance,  this  condition  bound  them 
to  nothing.  The  resolution  was,  however,  taken  up 
this  day  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  read  three 
times,  and  passed  by  a  vote  of  eighty-seven  to  eighty- 
one.  On  the  28th  of  February,  the  Senate,  by  a  vote 
of  twenty-eight  to  fourteen,  adopted  the  resolution. 

"This  second  Missouri  question  was  compromised 
like  the  first.  The  majority  against  the  unconditional 
admission  into  the  Union  was  small,  but  very  decided. 
The  problem  for  the  slave  representation  to  solve  was 
the  precise  extent  of  concession  necessary  for  them  to 
detach  from  the  opposite  party  a  number  of  anti- 
servile  votes  just  sufficient  to  turn  the  majority.  Mr. 
Clay  found,  at  last,  this  expedient,  which  the  slave 
voters  would  not  have  accepted  from  any  one  not  of 
their  own  party,  and  to  which  his  greatest  difficulty 


118  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

was  to  obtain  the  assent  of  his  own  friends.  The 
timid  and  the  weak-minded  dropped  off,  one  by  one, 
from  the  free  side  of  the  question,  until  a  majority  was 
formed  for  the  compromise,  of  which  the  servile  have 
the  substance,  and  the  liberals  the  shadow. 

"  In  the  progress  of  this  affair  the  distinctive  charac 
ter  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  great  divisions  of 
this  Union  has  been  shown  more  in  relief  than  perhaps 
in  any  national  transaction  since  the  establishment  of 
the  constitution.  It  is,  perhaps,  accidental  that  the 
combination  of  talent  and  influence  has  been  the  great 
est  on  the  slave  side.  The  importance  of  the  question 
has  been  much  greater  to  them  than  to  the  other  side. 
Their  union  of  exertion  has  been  consequently  closer 
and  more  unshakable.  They  have  threatened  and 
entreated,  bullied  and  wheedled,  until  their  more  sim 
ple  adversaries  have  been  half  coaxed,  half  frightened 
into  a  surrender  of  their  principles  for  a  bauble  of 
insignificant  promises.  The  champions  of  the  North 
did  not  judiciously  select  their  position  for  this  con 
test.  There  must  be,  some  time,  a  conflict  on  this  very 
question  between  slave  and  free  representation.  This, 
however,  was  not  the  proper  occasion  for  contesting 
it." 

At  this  period  Mr.  Adams  considered  that  the 
greatest  danger  of  the  Union  was  in  the  overgrown 
extent  of  its  territory,  combining  with  the  slavery 
question.  The  want  of  slaves  was  not  in  the  lands, 
but  in  their  inhabitants.  Slavery  had  become  in  the 
South  and  South-western  states  a  condition  of  exist 
ence.  On  the  falling  off  of  the  revenue,  which  oc- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  119 

curred  about  this  time,  he  observed  that  "it  stirs  up 
the  spirit  of  economy  and  retrenchment ;  and,  as  the 
expenditures  of  the  war  department  are  those  on 
which  the  most  considerable  saving  can  be  made,  at 
them  the  economists  level  their  first  and  principal 
batteries.  Individual,  personal  jealousies,  envyings, 
and  resentments,  partisan  ambition,  and  private  inter 
ests  and  hopes,  mingle  in  the  motives  which  prompt 
this  policy.  About  one  half  of  the  members  of  Con 
gress  are  seekers  of  office  at  the  nomination  of  the 
President.  Of  the  remainder,  at  least  one  half  have 
some  appointment  or  favor  to  ask  for  their  relatives. 
But  there  are  two  modes  of  obtaining  their  ends  :  the 
one,  by  subserviency  ;  the  other,  by  opposition.  These 
may  be  called  the  cringing  canvass  and  the  flouting 
canvass.  As  the  public  opinion  is  most  watchful  of 
the  cringing  canvass,  the  flouters  are  the  most  numer 
ous  party/' 


CHAPTER    VI. 

SECOND  TERM  OF  MONROE'S  PRESIDENCY. —  STATE  OF  PARTIES. REPORT 

ON  WEIGHTS  AND    MEASURES. PROCEEDINGS    AT    GHENT  VINDICATED. 

VOTES  WHEN    HE  WAS  A  MEMBER    OF   THE    SENATE    OF    THE    UNITED 

STATES  DEFENDED. INDEPENDENCE    OF  GREECE. CONTESTS  OF    PAR 
TIES. ELECTED    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

DURING  the  second  term  of  Mr.  Monroe's  Presi 
dency,  Mr.  Adams  continued  to  take  his  full  propor 
tion  of  responsibility  in  the  measures  of  the  adminis 
tration.  Questions  concerning  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  the  currency,  the  extinction  or  extension  of 
slavery,  the  bankrupt  law,  the  tariff,  and  internal 
improvements,  brought  into  discussion  the  interests  of 
the  great  States  of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  New 
York,  combined  with  the  never-ceasing  struggles  for 
power  of  parties  and  individuals.  Candidates  for  the 
office  of  President  and  Vice-President  were  brought 
into  the  field  by  their  respective  adherents.  Every 
topic  which  could  exalt  or  depress  either  was  put  in 
requisition,  and  office-holders  and  office-seekers  became 
anxious  and  alert. 

In  July,  1821,  at  the  request  of  the  citizens  of 
Washington,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  an  address  on  the 
anniversary  of  American  Independence.  It  did  not 
receive  the  indulgence  usually  extended  to  such 

(120) 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  121 

efforts,  but  was  made  the  occasion  of  severe  animad 
versions  on  his  character  and  talents.  In  December 
his  friends  called  his  attention  to  calumnies  and 
aspersions  copied  into  the  City  Gazette,  from  papers 
issued  in  Georgia  and  Tennessee,  and  expressed  their 
opinions  that  they  ought  to  be  answered  by  him,  as 
they  knew  they  could  be  most  triumphantly.  Mr. 
Adams  replied  :  "  Should  I  comply  with  your  request, 
it  will  be  immediately  said,  I  was  canvassing  for  the 
Presidency.  I  never,  that  I  can  recollect,  but  once, 
undertook  to  answer  anything  that  was  published 
against  me,  and  that  was  when  I  was  in  private  life. 
To  answer  newspaper  accusations  would  be  an  endless 
task.  The  tongue  of  falsehood  can  never  be  silenced. 
I  have  not  time  to  spare  from  public  business  to  the 
vindication  of  myself." 

To  place  Philip  P.  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  in  the 
Speaker's  chair,  and  to  prevent  the  reelection  of  John 
W.  Taylor,  of  New  York,  the  tried  friend  of  the 
administration,  became  the  next  object  of  all  those 
who  hoped  to  rise  by  opposing  it.  The  partisans  of 
Barbour  were  successful,  and  the  consequences  of  his 
elevation  were  immediately  apparent.  As  the  Com 
mittee  of  Foreign  Relations  was,  by  a  practical  rule, 
the  medium  of  communication  between  Congress  and 
the  executive  government,  it  was  customary  for  the 
Speaker  to  constitute  it  chiefly  of  members  who  coin 
cided  in  their  views.  But  many  of  those  now  ap 
pointed  by  Barbour,  especially  the  chairman,  were 
hostile  to  their  politics.  To  this  committee  all  the 
delicate  and  critical  papers  relative  to  the  foreign 


122     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

relations  of  the  United  States  were  to  be  confiden 
tially  communicated.  No  arrangement  could  have 
been  more  annoying  to  Mr.  Monroe  and  his  cabinet, 
or  more  symptomatic  of  a  settled  opposition. 

By  a  vote  passed  in  March,  1817,  the  Senate  had 
required  of  Mr.  Adams  a  report  on  weights  and 
measures;  and  in  December,  1819,  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  had  by  a  resolution  made  the  same  requi 
sition.  To  this  subject  he  had  directed  his  attention 
when  in  Russia ;  and  had  devoted  the  leisure  his 
duties  as  Secretary  of  State  permitted,  without 
approximating  to  its  completion,  owing  to  the  number 
and  perplexity  of  details  its  pursuit  involved. 

In  the  summer  of  1820  he  relinquished  a  visit  to 
his  father  and  friends  in  Massachusetts,  and  concen 
trated  his  attention,  during  six  months,  exclusively 
on  this  report,  which  he  finished  and  made  to  Con 
gress,  in  February,  1821.  At  the  conclusion  of  his 
work  he  thus  expresses  himself:  "This  subject  has 
occupied,  for  the  last  sixty  years,  many  of  the  ablest 
men  in  Europe,  and  to  it  all  the  powers,  and  all 
the  philosophical  and  mathematical  learning  and  inge 
nuity,  of  France  and  Great  Britain,  have  been  inces 
santly  directed.  It  was  a  fearful  and  oppressive  task. 
It  has  been  executed,  and  it  will  be  for  the  public 
judgment  to  pass  upon  it." 

From  the  abstruse  character  of  this  work,  the  labor, 
research,  and  talent,  it  evidences  have  never  been  gen 
erally  and  justly  appreciated.  It  commences  with  the 
wants  of  individuals  antecedent  to  the  existence  of 
communities,  and  deduces  from  man's  physical  organ- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  123 

ization,  and  from  the  exigences  of  domestic  society,  the 
origin  of  measures  of  surface,  distance,  and  capacity  ; 
and  that  of  weight,  from  the  difference  between  the 
specific  gravity  of  substances  and  its  importance  in  the 
exchange  of  traffic  consequent  on  the  multiplication 
of  human  wants,  with  the  increase  of  the  social  rela 
tions.  He  then  proceeds  to  state  and  analyze  the 
powers  and  duties  of  legislators  on  the  subject,  with 
their  respective  limitations.  The  results  of  his  re 
searches  relative  to  the  weights  and  measures  of  the 
Egyptians,  Hebrews,  Greeks,  and  Romans,  are  suc 
cessively  stated.  From  the  institutions  of  the  nations 
of  antiquity  he  derives  those  of  modern  Europe  and 
of  the  United  States.  He  praises  the  "stupendous 
and  untiring  perseverance  of  England  and  France" 
in  this  field,  and  explains  the  causes  which  have  not 
rendered  their  success  adequate  to  their  endeavors. 
The  system  of  modern  France  on  this  subject  he 
investigates  and  applauds,  as  "  one  of  those  attempts 
to  improve  the  condition  of  human  kind,  which, 
although  it  may  ultimately  fail,  deserves  admiration, 
as  approaching  more  nearly  than  any  other  to  the 
ideal  perfection  of  uniformity  in  weights  and  meas 
ures."  After  stating  the  difficulties  which  prevented 
other  nations  from  seconding  the  endeavors  of  France, 
Mr.  Adams  concludes  this  elaborate  treatise  with  the 
opinion  that  universal  uniformity  on  the  subject  can 
only  be  effected  by  a  general  convention,  to  which  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  should  be  parties.  Until 
such  a  general  course  of  measures  be  adopted,  he 
regards  it  as  inexpedient  for  the  United  States  to 


124     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

make  any  change  in  their  present  system.  After  an 
elaborate  enumeration  of  the  regulations  of  the  sev 
eral  states  of  the  Union,  accompanied  by  voluminous 
documents,  he  concludes  with  proposing,  "  first,  to  fix 
the  standard  with  the  partial  uniformity  of  which  it 
is  susceptible  for  the  present,  excluding  all  innovation. 
Second,  to  consult  with  foreign  nations  for  the  future 
and  ultimate  establishment  of  permanent  and  universal 
uniformity." 

The  Senate  ordered  six  hundred  copies  of  this  report 
to  be  printed.  But  its  final  suggestions  were  not  made 
the  subject  of  action  in  either  branch.  A  writer  of 
the  day  said,  with  equal  truth  and  severity,  "It  was 
not  noticed  in  Congress,  where  ability  was  wanting,  or 
labor  refused,  to  understand  it."  As  Mr.  Adams  was 
one  of  the .  candidates  in  the  approaching  presiden 
tial  election,  party  spirit  was  inclined  to  treat  with 
silence  and  neglect  labors  which  it  realized  could  not 
fail  to  command  admiration  and  approval.  In  Eng 
land  the  merits  of  this  report  were  more  justly  appre 
ciated.  In  1834,  Col.  Pasley,  royal  engineer,  in  a 
learned  work  on  measures  and  money,  acknowledged 
the  benefits  he  had  derived  from  "  an  official  report 
upon  weights  and  measures,  published  in  1821,  by  a 
distinguished  American  statesman,  John  Quincy  Ad 
ams.  This  author/'  he  adds,  "has  thrown  more 
light  into  the  history  of  our  old  English  weights  and 
measures  than  all  former  writers  on  the  subject  ;  and 
his  views  of  historical  facts,  even  when  occasionally  in 
opposition  to  the  reports  of  our  own  parliamentary 
committees,  appear  to  me  most  correct.  For  my  own 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  125 

part,  I  do  not  think  I  could  have  seen  my  way  into 
the  history  of  English  weights  and  measures  in  the 
feudal  ages  without  his  guidance." 

In  the  summer  of  1821  Mr.  Adams  was  apprized 
that  rumors,  very  unfavorable  to  his  reputation,  even 
for  integrity,  had  been  industriously  circulated  in  the 
Western  country.  It  had  been  stated  that  he  had 
made  a  proposition  at  Ghent  to  grant  to  the  British 
the  right  to  navigate  the  Mississippi,  in  return  for  the 
Newfoundland  fisheries,  and  that  it  was  in  that  section 
represented  as  a  high  misdemeanor.  Mr.  Adams  said, 
that  a  proposition  to  confirm  both  those  rights  as  they 
had  stood  before  the  war,  and  as  stipulated  by  the 
treaty  of  1783,  had  been  offered  to  the  British  commis 
sioners,  not  by  him,  but  by  the  whole  American  mission, 
every  one  of  whom  had  subscribed  to  it.  The  propo 
sition  was  not  made  by  him,  but  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  who 
knew  it  would  be  nothing  to  the  British  but  a  mere 
naked  right,  of  which  they  could  not  .make  any  use. 
It  was  accordingly  promptly  rejected  by  the  British 
commissioners,  and  made  the  ground  of  a  counter 
proposition  of  renouncing  the  right  they  had,  under 
the  treaty  of  1783,  of  navigating  that  river,  on  con 
dition  of  our  renouncing  the  old  article  on  the  fisheries. 
Mr.  Adams  at  once  declared  that,  if  it  was  acceded  to, 
he  would  never  sign  the  treaty ;  and  it  was  promptly 
rejected  by  the  American  commissioners.  When  he 
was  again  told  that  he  would  be  accused  in  the  West 
ern  States  of  the  proposition  to  confirm  the  British  rights 
as  they  stood  before  the  war,  he  replied,  that  he  had 
no  doubt  it  would  be  so  ;  for  Mr.  Clay  had  already,  in 


126  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

one  of  his  speeches  in  Congress,  represented  that  this 
proposition  had  been  made  by  a  majority  of  the  Ghent 
commissioners,  he  being  in  the  minority,  without 
acknowledging  that  he  had  himself  signed  the  note  by 
which  the  offer  was  made,  and  without  disclosing  how 
lightly  the  concession  was  estimated  by  the  British 
commissioners,  and  how  promptly  they  rejected  it. 

Accordingly,  on  the  18th  of  April,  1822,  John 
Floyd,  of  Virginia,  who,  both  in  that  state  and  in 
Congress,  was  active  in  seeking  and  scattering  malign 
imputations  concerning  the  political  course  of  Mr. 
Adams,  called,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  for  a 
letter,  written  by  Jonathan  Russell,  in  1814,  to  Mr. 
Monroe,  then  Secretary  of  State,  and,  as  he  stated, 
deposited  in  that  office. 

This  call  of  Floyd  was  the  springing  of  the  mine 
for  a  long-meditated  explosion.  On  searching  the 
records  of  state,  no  such  letter  could  be  found.  Mr. 
Russell  immediately  volunteered  a  copy,  and  deposited 
it  in  that  office.  This  letter  was  addressed  to  James 
Monroe,  then  Secretary  of  State,  and  was  dated  Paris, 
llth  of  February,  1815.  It  was  a  letter  of  seven 
folio  sheets  of  paper,  and  amounted,  said  Mr.  Adams, 
to  little  less  than  a  denunciation  of  a  majority  of  the 
Ghent  commissioners  for  proposing  the  article  recog 
nizing  the  fishery,  and  the  British  right  to  navigate 
the  Mississippi, —  a  proposition  in  which  Mr.  Russell 
had  concurred.  He  wrote  this  letter  at  Paris,  where 
all  the  commissioners  then  were,  without  ever  com 
municating  it  to  Mr.  Adams,  or  letting  him  know  he 
had  any  intention  of  writing  such  a  letter.  It  was 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  127 

a  most  elaborate,  disingenuous,  and  sophistical  argu 
ment  against  principles  in  which  Mr.  Russell  himself 
concurred,  and  against  the  joint  letters  of  the  14th 
December,  1814,  to  which  he  signed  his  name.  His 
motives,  Mr.  Adams  considered,  for  writing  then  to  a 
Virginian  Secretary  of  State,  under  a  Virginian  Presi 
dent,  were,  apparently,  at  once  to  recommend  himself 
to  their  sectional  prejudices  about  the  Mississippi,  and 
to  injure  him  in  their  esteem  and  favor,  for  future  effect ; 
and  that  his  motive  for  now  abetting  Floyd,  in  his  call 
for  these  papers  as  a  public  document,  was  to  diminish 
the  popularity  of  Mr.  Adams  in  the  Western  States. 

With  these  views  of  the  purposes  of  Floyd  and  Rus 
sell,  Mr.  Adams  immediately  endeavored  to  obtain  the 
original  letter,  of  which  Mr.  Russell  had  now  deposited 
in  the  Secretary  of  State's  office  a  paper  purporting  to 
be  a  copy.  The  original  he  ascertained  was  still  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Monroe,  who  had  received  it  soon  after 
its  date;  but,  as  it  was  marked  "  private"  by  Mr. 
Russell,  he  considered  it  confidential,  and  did  not  place 
it  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  On  ascertain 
ing  these  facts,  Mr.  Adams  claimed  the  original  letter 
from  Mr.  Monroe,  believing,  from  internal  evidence, 
that  the  duplicate,  instead  of  being  a  true  copy  of  the 
original,  had  been  in  some  respects  adapted  to  present 
etfect.  Mr.  Monroe  declined  to  listen  to  the  repeated 
remonstrances  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  continued  to  main 
tain  that  he  could  not,  with  honor,  make  the  original 
letter  public.  He  did  not  consent  until  he  was  called 
upon  for  it  by  a  vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
proposed  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  resisted  by 


128  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Floyd  and  Iris  party.  The  original  letter  being  thus 
obtained,  Mr.  Adams  prepared  and  published  a  severe 
and  scrutinizing  examination  of  its  facts  and  sugges 
tions,  of  the  motives  which  prompted  those  who  had 
brought  it  before  the  public,  and  of  the  discrepancies 
between  the  original  and  the  alleged  copy  which  Mr. 
Russell  had  volunteered  to  place  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Russell  replied  through  the 
newspapers  ;  on  which  reply  Mr.  Adams  bestowed  a 
searching  and  caustic  analysis,  commenting  with  great 
severity  on  his  language  and  conduct. 

The  whole  of  this  controversy  was  published  imme 
diately  in  an  octavo  pamphlet,  including  important 
documents  relative  to  the  subject  and  to  the  transac 
tions  of  the  commissioners  at  Ghent,  by  means  of  which 
Mr.  Adams  vindicates  himself  and  his  colleagues  from 
the  charges  brought  against  them.  This  elaborate  and 
powerful  defence,  on  which  the  strength  and  character 
of  his  mind  are  deeply  impressed,  was  regarded  as 
triumphant.* 

Mr.  Gallatin  also  published  a  pamphlet,  generally 
corroborative  of  the  statements  of  Mr.  Adams  ;  an 
example  which  Mr.  Clay,  another  of  the  Ghent  com 
missioners,  being  at  that  time  a  prominent  competitor 
with  Mr.  Adams  for  the  Presidency,  did  not  see  fit  to 
follow.  But,  as  total  silence  on  his  part  might  be 
construed  to  his  disadvantage,  he  published  in  the 
newspapers  a  letter,  dated  the  15th  of  November, 
1822,  in  which  he  intimated  that  there  were  some 

*This  publication  is  contained  in  JViVe*'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxn.,  pp. 
198,  209,  220,  296,  327,  and  continued  in  vol.  xxm.,  pp.  6  and  9. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  129 

errors,  both  as  to  matter  of  fact  and  opinion,  in  the 
letter  of  Mr.  Adams,  as  well  as  in  that  of  Mr.  Galla- 
tin ;  and  declared  that  he  would  at  some  future 
period,  more  propitious  to  calm  and  dispassionate 
consideration,  and  when  there  could  be  no  misrepre 
sentation  of  motives,  lay  before  the  public  his  own 
narrative  of  these  transactions. 

Mr.  Adams,  on  the  18th  of  the  ensuing  December, 
in  a  communication  to  the  National  Intelligencer, 
expressed  the  pleasure  it  would  have  given  him, 
had  Mr.  Clay  thought  it  advisable  to  have  specified 
the  errors  he  had  intimated,  to  have  rectified  them 
by  acknowledgment.  He  added,  that  whenever  Mr. 
Clay's  accepted  time  to  publish  his  promised  nar 
rative  should  come,  he  would  be  ready,  if  living,  to 
acknowledge  indicated  errors,  and  vindicate  con 
tested  truth.  But,  lest  it  might  be  postponed  until 
both  should  be  summoned  to  account  for  all  their  errors 
before  a  higher  tribunal  than  that  of  their  country,  he 
felt  called  upon  to  say  that  what  he  had  written  and 
published  concerning  this  controversy  would,  in  every 
particular  essential  or  important  to  the  interest  of  the 
nation,  or  to  the  character  of  Mr.  Clay,  be  found  to 
abide  unshaken  the  test  of  human  scrutiny,  of  talents, 
and  of  time. 

In  July,  1822,  a  plan  for  an  independent  news 
paper  was  proposed  to  Mr.  Adams  by  some  members 
of  Congress,  and  the  necessity  of  such*  a  paper  was 
urged  upon  him  with  great  earnestness.  He  replied  : 
"An  independent  newspaper  is  very  necessary  to 
make  truth  known  to  the  people  ;  but  an  editor  really 

9 


130  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

independent  must  have  a  heart  of  oak,  nerves  of 
iron,  and  a  soul  of  adamant,  to  carry  it  through. 
Ills  first  attempt  will  bring  a  hornet's  nest  about 
his  head  ;  and,  if  they  do  not  sting  him  to  death  or 
to  blindness,  he  will  have  to  pursue  his  march  with 
them  continually  swarming  over  him,  and  be  beset  on 
all  sides  with  obloquy  and  slander/' 

In  August,  1822,  paragraphs  from  newspapers, 
laudatory  of  other  candidates,  and  depreciatory  of 
Mr.  Adams,  were  shown  to  him,  on  which  he  re 
marked,  "  The  thing  is  not  new.  From  the  nature  of 
our  institutions,  competitors  for  public  favor  and  their 
respective  partisans  seek  success  by  slander  of  each 
other.  I  disdain  the  ignoble  warfare,  and  neither 
wage  it  myself  or  encourage  it  in  my  friends.  But, 
from  appearances,  they  will  decide  the  election  to  the 
Presidency." 

In  December,  1822,  Alexander  Smyth,  also  a  rep 
resentative  of  one  of  the  districts  of  Virginia,  fol 
lowed  the  example  of  Mr.  Floyd,  and,  in  an  address 
to  his  constituents,  took  occasion  to  introduce  malign 
imputations  upon  the  political  course  of  Mr.  Adams. 
To  this  end,  having  ransacked  the  journals  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  when  Mr. 
Adams  was  a  member,  he  undertook  to  attribute  to 
him  base  motives  for  the  votes  he  had  given,  particu 
larly  such  as  ^would  be  likely  most  to  affect  his  popu 
larity  in  Virginia.  Mr.  Adams  immediately  caused 
to  be  printed  and  published  an  address  to  the  free 
holders  of  Smyth's  district ;  the  nature  and  spirit  of 
which  reply  will  be  shown  by  the  following  extracts 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  131 

"  Friends  and  Fellow-Citizens  :  By  these  titles  I  presume 
to  address  you,  though  personally  known  to  few  of  you,  be 
cause  my  character  has  been  arraigned  before  you  by  your 
representative  in  Congress,  in  a  printed  handbill,  soliciting 
your  suffrages  for  reelection,  who  seems  to  have  considered 
his  first  claim  to  the  continuance  of  your  favor  to  consist  in 
the  bitterness  with  which  he  could  censure  me.  I  shall  never 
solicit  your  suffrages,  nor  those  of  your  representatives,  for 
anything.  But  I  value  your  good  opinion,  and  wish  to  show 
you  that  I  do  not  deserve  to  lose  it."  —  "I  come  to  repel  the 
charges  of  General  Smyth,  but  neither  for  the  purpose  of 
moving  you  to  withhold  your  suffrages  from  him,  nor  induce 
the  General  himself  to  reconsider  his  opinion  concerning  me." 
—  "  As  to  his  opinions,  you  will  permit  me  to  be  indifferent  to 
the  opinions  of  a  man  capable  of  forming  his  judgment  of 
character  from  such  premises  as  he  has  alleged  in  support  of 
his  estimate  of  mine."  —  "  His  mode  of  proof  is  this  :  He  has 
ransacked  the  journals  of  the  Senate  during  the  five  years  I 
had  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  that  body,  —  a  period  the  expira 
tion  of  which  is  nearly  fifteen  years  distant, — and  wherever 
he  has  found  in  the  list  of  yeas  and  nays  my  name  recorded 
to  a  vote  which  he  disapproves,  he  has  imputed  it,  without 
knowing  any  of  the  grounds  on  which  it  was  given,  to  the 
worst  of  motives,  for  the  purpose  of  ascribing  them  to  me. 
Is  this  fair  ?  Is  this  candid  ?  Is  this  just  ?  Where  is  the 
man  who  ever  served  in  a  legislative  capacity  in  your  councils 
whose  character  could  stand  a  test  like  this  ?  " 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeds  to  reply  to  all  the  charges 
brought  against  him  by  Alexander  Smyth,  analyzing 
and  explaining  every  vote  which  he  had  made  the 
subject  of  animadversion  fully  and  successfully.  The 
close  of  his  defence  is  as  follows  : 

"  Fellow-Citizens :  I  have  explained  to  you  the  reasons 
and  real  motives  of  all  the  votes  which  your  representative, 


132  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

General  Alexander  Smyth,  has  laid  to  my  charge,  in  a  printed 
address  to  you,  and  to  which  unusual  publicity  has  been  given 
in  the  newspapers.  I  am  aware  that,  in  presenting  myself 
before  you  to  give  this  explanation,  my  conduct  may  again  be 
attributed  to  unworthy  motives.  The  best  actions  may  be, 
and  have  been,  and  will  be,  traced  to  impure  sources,  by  those 
to  whom  troubled  waters  are  a  delight.  If,  in  many  cases, 
when  the  characters  of  public  men  are  canvassed,  however 
severely,  it  is  their  duty  to  suffer  and  be  silent,  there  are 
others,  in  my  belief  many  others,  wherein  their  duty  to  their 
country,  as  well  as  to  themselves  and  their  children,  is  to  stand 
forth  the  guardians  and  protectors  of  their  own  honest  fame. 
Had  your  representative,  in  asking  again  for  your  votes,  con 
tented  himself  with  declaring  to  you  his  intentions  concerning 
me,  you  never  would  have  heard  from  me  in  answer  to  him. 
But  when  he  imputes  to  me  a  character  and  disposition  un 
worthy  of  any  public  man,  and  adduces  in  proof  mere  naked 
votes  upon  questions  of  great  public  interest,  all  given  under 
the  solemn  sense  of  duty,  impressed  by  an  oath  to  support  the 
constitution,  and  by  the  sacred  obligations  of  a  public  trust,  to 
defend  myself  against  charges  so  groundless  and  unprovoked 
is,  in  my  judgment,  a  duty  of  respect  to  you,  no  less  than  a 
duty  of  self-vindication  to  me.  I  declare  to  you  that  not  one 
of  the  votes  which  General  Smyth  has  culled  from  an  arduous 
service  of  five  years  in  the  Senate  of  the  Union,  to  stigmatize 
them  in  the  face  of  the  country,  was  given  from  any  of  the 
passions  or  motives  to  which  he  ascribes  them  ;  that  I  never 
gave  a  vote  either  in  hostility  to  the  administration  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  or  in  disregard  to  republican  principles,  or  in  aver 
sion  to  republican  patriots,  or  in  favor  of  the  slave-trade,  or 
in  denial  of  due  protection  to  commerce.  I  will  add,  that, 
having  often  differed  in  judgment  upon  particular  measures 
with  many  of  the  best  and  wisest  men  of  this  Union  of  all 
parties,  I  have  never  lost  sight  either  of  the  candor  due  to 
them  in  the  estimate  of  their  motives,  or  of  the  diffidence 
with  which  it  was  my  duty  to  maintain  the  result  of  my  own 
opinions  in  opposition  to  theirs." 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  133 

x. 

In  1823,  as  the  Presidential  election  approached, 
the  influences  to  control  and  secure  the  interests  pre 
dominating  in  the  different  sections  of  the  country 
became  more  active.  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  Calhoun, 
of  South  Carolina,  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Clay,  of  Kentucky,  were  the  most  prominent  candi 
dates.  In  December,  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  was  su 
perseded,  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
by  Clay,  of  Kentucky ;  an  event  ominous  to  the  hopes 
of  Crawford,  and  to  that  resistance  to  the  tariff,  and 
to  internal  improvements,  which  was  regarded  as 
dependent  on  his  success.  The  question  whether  a 
Congressional  caucus,  by  the  instrumentality  of  which 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  had  obtained  the 
Presidency,  should  be  again  held  to  nominate  a  can 
didate  for  that  office,  was  the  next  cause  of  political 
excitement.  The  Southern  party,  whose  hopes  rested 
on  the  success  of  Crawford,  were  clamorous  for  a 
caucus.  The  friends  of  the  other  candidates  were 
either  lukewarm  or  hostile  to  that  expedient.  Penn 
sylvania,  whose  general  policy  favored  a  protective 
tariff  and  public  improvements,  hesitated.  In  1816 
she  had  manifested  an  opposition  to  that  plan  of  Con 
gressional  influence,  and  in  1823  a  majority  of  her 
representatives  declined  attending  any  partial  meet 
ing  of  members  of  Congress  that  might  attempt  a 
nomination.  But  the  Democracy  of  that  state,  ever 
subservient  to  the  views  of  the  Southern  aristocracy, 
held  meetings  at  Philadelphia,  and  elsewhere,  rec 
ommending  a  Congressional  caucus.  This  motion 
would  have  been  probably  adopted,  had  not  the 


134  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

Legislature  of  Alabama,  about  this  time,  nominated 
Andrew  Jackson  for  the  Presidency,  and  accompanied 
their  resolutions  in  his  favor  with  a  recommendation  to 
their  representatives  to  use  their  best  exertions  to  pre 
vent  a  Congressional  nomination  of  a  President.  The 
popularity  of  Jackson,  and  the  obvious  importance  to 
his  success  of  the  policy  recommended  by  Alabama, 
fixed  the  wavering  counsels  of  Pennsylvania,  so  that 
only  three  representatives  from  that  state  attended  the 
Congressional  caucus,  which  was  soon  after  called, 
and  which  consisted  of  only  sixty  members,  out  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty-one,  the  whole  number  of  the  House 
of  Representatives ;  of  which  Virginia  and  New 
York,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  constituted 
nearly  one  half.  Notwithstanding  this  meagre  assem 
blage,  Mr.  Crawford  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency, 
under  a  confident  expectation  that  the  influence  of  the 
caucus  would  be  conclusive  with  the  people,  and  the 
candidate  and  policy  of  Virginia  would  be  confirmed  in 
ascendency.  But  the  days  of  Congressional  caucuses 
were  now  numbered.  The  people  took  the  nomination 
of  President  into  their  own  hands,  and  the  insolent 
assumption  of  members  of  Congress  to  dictate  their 
choice  in  respect  of  this  office  was  henceforth  re 
buked. 

While  these  intrigues  were  progressing,  Mr.  Adams 
was  zealously  and  laboriously  fulfilling  his  duties  as 
Secretary  of  State,  neither  endeavoring  himself,  nor 
exciting  his  friends,  to  counteract  these  political  move 
ments,  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  whir-h  was  to 
defeat  his  chance  for  the  Presidency 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  135 

The  course  of  Mr.  Adams  relative  to  the  applica 
tion  of  the  Greeks,  then  struggling  for  independence, 
for  the  aid  and  countenance  of  the  United  States, 
next  brought  him  into  opposition  to  the  prevailing 
tendency  of  the  popular  feeling  of  the  time.  A  letter 
was  addressed  to  him,  as  Secretary  of  State,  by  An 
drew  Luriottis,  envoy  of  the  provisional  government 
of  the  Greeks,  at  London,  entreating  that  political 
and  commercial  relations  might  be  established  between 
the  United  States  and  Greece,  and  proposing  to  enter 
upon  discussions  which  might  lead  to  advantageous 
treaties  between  the  two  countries.  Mr.  Rush,  the 
American  minister  in  London,  enclosed  this  letter  to 
Mr.  Adams,  and  recommended  the  subject  to  the 
favorable  attention  of  our  government.  Mr.  Adams, 
after  expressing  the  sympathy  of  the  American  ad 
ministration  in  the  cause  of  Greek  freedom  and  inde 
pendence,  and  their  best  wishes  for  its  success,  pro 
ceeded  to  state  that  their  duties  precluded  their  taking 
part  in  the  war,  peace  with  all  the  world  being  the 
settled  policy  of  the  United  States  ;  but  that  if,  in 
the  progress  of  events,  the  Greeks  should  establish 
and  organize  an  independent  government,  the  United 
States  would  welcome  them,  and  form  with  them 
such  diplomatic  and  commercial  relations  as  were  suit 
able  to  their  respective  relations.  Mr.  Adams  also 
wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Rush,  requesting  him  to  explain 
to  Mr.  Luriottis  that  the  executive  of  the  United 
States  sympathized  with  the  Greek  cause,  and  would 
render  the  Greeks  any  service  consistent  with  neu 
trality  ;  but  that  assistance  given  by  the  application 


136  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

of  the  public  force  or  revenue  would  involve  them  in 
a  war  with  the  Sublime  Porte,  or  perhaps  with  the 
Barbary  powers  ;  that  such  aid  could  not  be  given 
without  an  act  of  Congress,  and  that  the  policy  of 
the  United  States  was  essentially  pacific. 

The  popular  feeling  in  favor  of  granting  aid  to  the 
Greeks  soon  began  to  be  general  and  intense.  Balls 
were  held  and  benefits  given  to  raise  funds  for  their 
relief,  and  sermons  and  orations  delivered  in  their 
behalf,  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States.  "  On 
this  subject,"  Mr.  Adams  remarked,  "  there  are  two 
sources  of  eloquence  :  the  one,  with  reference  to  sen 
timent  and  enthusiasm ;  the  other,  to  action.  For  the 
Greeks  all  is  enthusiasm.  As  for  action,  there  is  sel 
dom  an  agreement,  and  after  discussion  the  subject  is 
apt  to  be  left  precisely  where  it  was.  Nothing  defi 
nite,  nothing  practical,  is  proposed/'  The  United 
States  were  at  peace  with  the  Sublime  Porte,  and  he 
did  not  think  slightly  of  a  war  with  Turkey.  He  had 
not  much  esteem  for  that  enthusiasm  for  the  Greeks 
which  evaporated  in  words. 

In  the  ensuing  session,  on  the  9th  of  January,  1824, 
Mr.  Webster,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  pro 
posed  a  resolve  "  that  provision  ought  to  be  made  by 
law  for  defraying  the  expense  incident  to  the  appoint 
ment  of  an  agent  or  commissioner  to  Greece,  whenever 
the  President  shall  deem  it  expedient  to  make  such 
appointment ;  "  supporting  it  by  a  speech  adapted  to 
catch  the  popular  tide,  then  at  the  full,  and,  in  fact, 
doing  nothing  with  the  appearance  of  doing  something. 
A  member  of  Congress  consulted  Mr.  Adams  on  an 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  137 

amendment  he  proposed  to  make  to  the  project  of  Mr. 
Webster,  as  specified  in  his  resolve,  it  being  then  under 
consideration  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Mr. 
Adams  replied,  it  was  immaterial  what  form  the  reso 
lution  might  assume  ;  the  objection  to  it  would  be  the 
same  in  every  form.  It  was,  in  his  opinion,  the  inter 
meddling  of  the  legislature  with  the  duties  of  the 
executive  ;  it  was  the  adoption  of  Clay's  South  Amer 
ican  system  ;  seizing  upon  the  popular  feeling  of  the 
moment  to  embarrass  the  administration.  A  few  days 
afterwards,  Mr.  Adams  took  occasion  to  state  his  rea 
sons  to  Mr.  Webster  for  being  averse  to  his  resolution. 

Notwithstanding  the  Virginia  doctrine,  that  the  con 
stitution  does  not  authorize  the  application  of  public 
moneys  to  internal  improvement,  was  one  of  the  hinges 
on  which  the  selection  of  candidates  in  the  Southern 
States  turned,  Mr.  Adams  did  not  refrain  from  openly 
expressing  his  own  opinion.  In  a  letter  to  a  gentle 
man  in  Maryland,  dated  January,  1824,  he  stated 
that  "  Congress  does  possess  the  power  of  appropriating 
money  for  public  improvements.  Roads  and  canals 
are  among  the  most  essential  means  of  improving  the 
condition  of  nations  ;  and  a  people  which  should  delib 
erately,  by  the  organization  of  its  authorized  power, 
deprive  itself  of  the  faculty  of  multiplying  its  own 
blessings,  would  be  as  wise  as  a  Creator  who  should 
undertake  to  constitute  a  human  being  without  a 
heart."  * 

WThile  the  election  of  President  was  pending,  and 
the  event  uncertain,  a  member  of  Congress  from  Ohio 

*  JVi'Zcs'  Register,  vol.  xxvi.,  pp.  251—328. 


138  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    'ADAMS. 

told  Mr.  Adams  there  were  sanguine  hopes  of  his 
success  ;  on  which  he  remarked  :  "  We  know  so  lit 
tle  of  that  in  futurity  which  is  best  for  ourselves, 
that  whether  I  ought  to  wish  for  success  is  among  the 
greatest  uncertainties  of  the  election.  Were  it  possi 
ble  to  look  with  philosophical  indifference  to  the  event, 
that  is  the  temper  of  mind  to  which  I  should  aspire. 
But  who  can  hold  a  firebrand  in  his  hand  by  thinking 
of  the  frosty  Caucasus  ?  To  suffer  without  feeling  is 
not  in  human  nature  ;  and  when  I  consider  that  to  me 
alone,  of  all  the  candidates  before  the  nation,  failure 
of  success  would  be  equivalent  to  a  vote  of  censure  by 
the  nation  upon  my  past  services,  I  cannot  dissemble 
to  myself  that  I  have  more  at  stake  in  the  result  than 
any  other  individual.  Yet  a  man  qualified  for  the 
duties  of  chief  magistrate  of  ten  millions  of  people 
should  be  a  man  proof  alike  to  prosperous  and  adverse 
fortune.  If  I  am  able  to  bear  success,  I  must  be  tem 
pered  to  endure  defeat.  He  wrho  is  equal  to  the  task 
of  serving  a  nation  as  her  chief  ruler  must  possess 
resources  of  a  power  to  serve  her,  even  against  her  own 
will.  This  I  would  impress  indelibly  on  my  own 
mind  ;  and  for  a  practical  realization  of  which,  in  its 
proper  result,  I  look  for  wisdom  and  strength  from 
above/' 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1824,  Mr.  Adams  responded 
to  a  like  intimation  :  "  You  will  be  disappointed.  To 
ine  both  alternatives  are  distressing  in  prospect.  The 
most  formidable  is  that  of  success.  All  the  danger  is 
on  the  pinnacle.  The  humiliation  of  failure  will  be 
so  much  more  than  compensated  by  the  safety  in  which 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 


it  will  leave  me,  that  I  ought  to  regard  it  as  a  con 
summation  devoutly  to  be  wished." 

At  this  period  an  apprehension  being  expressed  to 
him  that  if  he  was  elected  Federalists  would  be 
excluded  from  office,  he  said,  he  should  exclude  no 
person  for  political  opinion,  or  on  account  of  personal 
opposition  to  him  ;  but  that  his  great  object  would  be 
to  break  up  the  remnant  of  all  party  distinctions,  and 
to  bring  the  whole  people  together,  in  point  of  senti 
ment,  as  much  as  possible  ;  and  that  he  should  turn 
no  one  out  of  office  on  account  of  his  conduct  or  opin 
ions  in  the  approaching  election. 

The  result  of  this  electioneering  conflict  was,  that, 
by  the  returns  of  the  electoral  colleges  of  the  several 
states,  it  appeared  that  none  of  the  candidates  had  the 
requisite  constitutional  majority  ;  the  whole  number 
of  votes  being  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  —  of  which 
Andrew  Jackson  had  ninety-nine,  John  Quincy  Adams 
eighty-four,  William  H.  Crawford  forty-one,  and  Henry 
Clay  thirty-seven.  For  the  office  of  Vice-President, 
John  C.  Calhoun  had  one  hundred  and  eighty  votes, 
and  was  elected. 

This  result  had  not  been  generally  anticipated  by 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Adams.  His  political  course  had 
been,  for  sixteen  years,  identified  with  the  policy  of 
the  leading  statesmen  of  the  Southern  States,  and 
had  been  acceptable  to  that  section  of  the  Union.  It 
had  therefore  been  hoped  that,  with  regard  to  him, 
the  general  and  inherent  antipathy  to  a  Northern 
President,  which  there  existed,  would  have  been 
weakened,  if  not  subdued.  His  diplomatic  talents 


140  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

had  been  successfully  exercised  in  carrying  into 
effect  Mr.  Madison's  views  during  the  whole  of  that 
statesman's  administration.  He  had  been  the  pillar 
on  which  Mr.  Monroe  had,  during  both  terms  of  his 
Presidency,  leaned  for  support,  if  not  for  direction. 
It  was,  therefore,  not  without  reason  anticipated  that 
at  least  a  partial  support  would  have  been  given  to 
him  in  the  region  where  the  influences  of  Jefferson, 
Madison,  and  Monroe,  were  predominant.  But,  of  the 
eighty-four  votes  cast  for  Mr.  Adams,  not  one  was 
given  by  either  of  the  three  great  Southern  slavehold- 
ing  states.  Seventy -seven  were  given  to  him  by  New 
England  and  New  York.  The  other  seven  were  cast 
by  the  Middle  or  recently  admitted  states. 

The  selection  of  President  from  the  candidates  now 
devolved  on  the  House  of  Representatives,  under  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution.  But,  again,  Mr.  Adams 
had  the  support  of  none  of  those  slaveholding  states, 
with  the  exception  of  Kentucky,  and  her  delegates 
were  equally  divided  between  him  and  General  Jack 
son.  The  decisive  vote  was,  in  effect,  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Clay,  then  Speaker  of  the  House,  who  cast  it  for 
Mr.  Adams  ;  *  a  responsibility  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
assume,  notwithstanding  the  equal  division  of  the 
Kentucky  delegation,  and  in  defiance  of  a  resolution 
passed  by  the  Legislature  of  that  state,  declaring  their 
preference  for  General  Jackson. f  On  the  final  vote 
Andrew  Jackson  had  seven  votes,  William  H.  Craw 
ford  four,  and  John  Quincy  Adams  thirteen  ;  who 
was,  therefore,  forthwith  declared  President  of  the 

*  Mies'  Register,  vol.  xxvn.,  p.  387.         t  Ibid.,  vol.  xxvu.,  p.  321. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  141 

United  States  for  four  years  ensuing  the  4th  of  March, 
1825. 

In  the  answer  of  Mr.  Adams  to  the  official  notice  of 
his  election  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  after 
paying  tribute  to  the  talents  and  public  services  of  his 
competitors,  he  declared  that  if,  by  refusal  to  accept 
the  trust  thus  delegated  to  him,  he  could  give  imme 
diate  opportunity  to  the  people  to  express,  with  a 
nearer  approach  to  unanimity,  the  object  of  their  pref 
erence,  he  would  not  hesitate  to  decline  the  moment 
ous  charge.  But  the  constitution  having,  in  case  of 
such  refusal,  otherwise  disposed  of  the  resulting  con 
tingency,  he  declared  his  acceptance  of  the  trust 
assigned  to  him  by  his  country  through  her  constitu 
tional  organs,  confiding  in  the  wisdom  of  the  legisla 
tive  councils  for  his  guide,  and  relying  above  all  on 
the  direction  of  a  superintending  Providence. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

ADMINISTRATION     AS     PRESIDENT.  POLICY.  RECOMMENDATIONS     TO 

CONGRESS. PRINCIPLES   RELATIVE   TO    OFFICIAL    APPOINTMENTS   AND 

REMOVALS. COURSE  IN  ELECTION    CONTESTS. TERMINATION  OF  HIS 

PRESIDENCY. 

THOSE  sectional,  party,  and  personal  influences, 
which  at  all  times  tend  to  throw  a  republic  out  of  the 
path  of  duty  and  safety,  were  singularly  active  and 
powerful  during  the  Presidency  of  Mr.  Adams.  They 
were  peculiar  and  unavoidable.  His  administration, 
beyond  all  others,  was  assailed  by  an  unprincipled 
and  audacious  rivalry.  Its  course  and  consequences 
belong  to  the  history  of  the  United  States,  and  will 
be  here  no  further  stated,  or  made  the  subject  of  com 
ment,  than  as  they  affect  or  throw  light  on  his  policy 
and  character. 

Immediately  after  his  inauguration,  Mr.  Adams 
appointed  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  Secretary  of 
State ;  Richard  Rush,  of  Pennsylvania,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury ;  James  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  Secretary 
of  War ;  Samuel  L.  Southard,  of  New  Jersey,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy;  John  McLean,  of  Ohio,  Postmaster- Gen 
eral;  and  William  Wirt,  of  Virginia,  Attorney-Gen 
eral.  The  election  of  Mr.  Adams  to  the  Presidency 

(142) 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  143 

depended  on  the  vote  of  Henry  Clay,  who  recognized 
and  voluntarily  assumed  the  responsibility.  By  vot 
ing  for  General  Jackson,  he  would  have  coincided 
with  the  majority  of  popular  voices;  but,  actuated,  as 
he  declared,  by  an  irrepressible  sense  of  public  duty, 
in  open  disregard  of  instructions  from  the  dominant 
party  in  Kentucky,  he  dared  to  expose  himself  to  the 
coining  storm,  the  violence  of  which  he  anticipated,  and 
soon  experienced.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  F.  Brooke,  dated 
28th  of  January,  1825,  which  was  soon  published,* 
he  thus  expressed  his  views  :  "  As  a  friend  to  liberty 
and  the  permanence  of  our  institutions,  I  cannot  con 
sent,  in  this  early  stage  of  their  existence,  by  con 
tributing  to  the  election  of  a  military  chieftain,  to 
give  the  strongest  guaranty  that  this  republic  will 
march  in  the  fatal  road  which  has  conducted  every 
other  republic  to  ruin/'  In  a  letter  dated  the  26th 
of  March,  1825,  addressed  to  the  people  of  his  Con 
gressional  district,  in  Kentucky,  Mr.  Clay  more  fully 
illustrated  the  motives  for  his  vote:  "I  did  not 
believe  General  Jackson  so  competent  to  discharge 
the  various  intricate  and  complex  duties  of  the  office 
of  chief  magistrate  as  his  competitor.  If  he  has 
exhibited,  either  in  the  councils  of  the  Union,  or  in 
those  of  his  own  state  or  territory,  the  qualities  of  a 
statesman,  the  evidence  of  the  fact  has  escaped  my 
observation."  —  "It  would  be  as  painful  as  it  is 
unnecessary  to  recapitulate  some  of  the  incidents, 
which  must  be  fresh  in  your  recollection,  of  his  public 

*  JViZes'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxvii.,  p.  38G. 


144  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

life  ,  but  I  was  greatly  deceived  in  my  judgment  if 
they  proved  him  to  be  endowed  with  that  prudence, 
temper,  and  discretion,  which  are  necessary  for  civil 
administration."  —  "  In  his  elevation,  too,  I  thought  I 
perceived  the  establishment  of  a  fearful  precedent." 
— "  Undoubtedly  there  are  other  and  many  dangers 
to  public  liberty,  besides  that  which  proceeds  from 
military  idolatry ;  but  I  have  yet  to  acquire  the 
knowledge  of  it,  if  there  be  one  more  pernicious  or 
more  frequent.  Of  Mr.  Adams  it  is  but  truth  and 
justice  to  say  that  he  is  highly  gifted,  profoundly 
learned,  and  long  and  greatly  experienced  in  public 
affairs,  at  home  and  abroad.  Intimately  conversant 
with  the  rise  and  progress  of  every  negotiation  with 
foreign  powers,  pending  or  concluded ;  personally 
acquainted  with  the  capacity  and  attainments  of  most 
of  the  public  men  of  this  country  whom  it  might  be 
proper  to  employ  in  the  public  service  ;  extensively 
possessed  of  much  of  that  valuable  kind  of  informa 
tion  which  is  to  be  acquired  neither  from  books  nor 
tradition,  but  which  is  the  fruit  of  largely  participat 
ing  in  public  affairs  ;  discreet  and  sagacious,  he  will 
enter  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  with  great  advan 
tages."  * 

General  Jackson  was  deeply  mortified  and  irritated 
by  Mr.  Clay's  preference  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  still 
more  by  his  avowal  of  the  motives  on  which  it  was 
founded.  In  a  letter  to  Samuel  Swartwout,  dated 
the  23d  of  February,  1825,f  by  whom  it  was  imme- 

*  JVi'Zes'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxvin.,  p.  71.  f  Ibid.,  p.  20. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  145 

diately  published,  he  complained  bitterly  of  the  term 
"  military  chieftain,"  which  Mr.  Cluy,  in  his  letter 
to  Mr.  Brooke,  had  applied  to  him ;  and,  utterly  disre 
garding  the  rights  and  duties  which  the  provisions  of 
the  constitution  had  conferred  and  imposed  on  Mr. 
Clay,  he  assumed  that  he  was  himself  entitled,  by 
the  plurality  of  votes  he  had  received,  to  be  regarded 
as  the  object  indicated  by  "  the  supremacy  of  the  peo 
ple's  will."  Treating  the  objections  as  personal,  and 
as  ominously  bearing  on  his  future  political  prospects, 
after  insinuating  that  there  had  been  "art  or  man 
agement  to  entice  a  representative  in  Congress  from  a 
conscientious  responsibility  to  his  own  or  the  wishes  of 
his  constituents,"  he  declared  his  intention  "  to  appeal 
from  this  opprobrium  and  censure  to  the  judgment  of 
an  enlightened,  patriotic,  uncorrupted  people." 

Not  content  with  uttering  these  general  insinuations 
against  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Adams,  he  immediately 
put  into  circulation  among  his  friends  and  partisans 
an  unqualified  statement  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Adams 
had  obtained  the  Presidency  by  means  of  a  corrupt 
bargain  with  Henry  Clay,  on  the  condition  that  he 
should  be  elevated  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 
To  this  calumny  Jackson  gave  his  name  and  authority, 
asserting  that  he  possessed  evidence  of  its  truth ;  and, 
although  Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  publicly  denied  the 
charge,  and  challenged  proof  of  it,  two  years  elapsed 
before  they  could  compel  him  to  produce  his  evidence. 
This,  when  adduced,  proved  utterly  groundless,  and 
the  charge  false  ;  the  whole  being  but  the  creation  of 
an  irritated  and  disappointed  mind.  Though  detected 
10 


146     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 

and  exposed,  the  calumny  had  the  effect  for  which 
it  was  calculated.  Jackson's  numerous  partisans  and 
friends  made  it  the  source  of  an  uninterrupted  stream 
of  abuse  upon  Mr.  Adams,  through  his  whole  adminis 
tration. 

The  Legislature  of  Tennessee  immediately  responded 
to  General  Jackson's  appeal  to  the  people,  by  nomi 
nating  him  as  their  candidate  for  the  office  of  Presi 
dent,  at  the  next  election  ;  a  distinction  which  he 
joyfully  accepted,  and  on  that  account  immediately 
resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States. 

Thus,  before  Mr.  Adams  had  made  any  development 
of  his  policy  as  President,  an  opposition  to  him  and 
his  administration  was  publicly  organized  by  his  chief 
competitor,  under  the  authority  of  one  of  the  states 
of  the  Union,  which  manifested  itself  in  p;\rty  bit 
terness,  and  animosity  to  every  act  and  proposition 
having  any  bearing  on  his  political  prospects.  The 
appointment  of  Henry  Clay  to  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  State  was  seized  upon  as  unequivocal  proof  of 
Jackson's  allegation ;  yet  it  was  impossible  to  desig 
nate  any  leading  politician  who  had  such  just,  une 
quivocal,  and  high  pretensions  to  that  station,  or  one 
more  popular,  especially  at  the  South  and  the  West. 
Mr.  Clay  had  been  a  prominent  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Adams.  His  talents 
were  unquestionable,  and  a  long  career  in  public  life 
rendered  him  more  conspicuous  and  suitable  for  the 
office  than  any  other  statesman  of  the  period.  These 
qualifications  weighed  nothing  in  the  scale  of  pop- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS.  147 

alar  opinion  and  prejudice.  The  strength  of  oppo 
sition,  based  on  the  calumny  circulated  by  Jackson, 
became  apparent  on  every  question  which  could  be 
construed  to  affect  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Adams; 
especially  with  regard  to  those  measures  which  were 
obviously  near  his  heart,  and  which  tended  to  give  a 
permanent  and  effective  character  to  his  administra 
tion. 

In  his  inaugural  address,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1825, 
after  enumerating  the  duties  of  the  people  and  their 
rulers,  he  proceeded  to  intimate  the  views  which  char 
acterized  his  policy:  "  There  remains  one  effort  of 
magnanimity,  one  sacrifice  of  prejudice  and  passion, 
to  be  made  by  individuals,  throughout  the  nation,  who 
have  heretofore  followed  the  standard  of  political 
party.  It  is  that  of  discarding  every  remnant  of 
rancor  against  each  other,  of  embracing  as  country 
men  and  friends,  and  of  yielding  to  talents  and  virtue 
alone  that  confidence  which,  in  times  of  contention  for 
principle,  was  bestowed  only  on  those  who  bore  the 
badge  of  party  communion. " 

His  thoughts  on  this  subject  were  again  expressed 
in  May,  1825  :  "  The  custom-house  officers  through 
out  the  Union,  in  all  probability,  were  opposed  to  my 
election.  They  are  all  now  in  my  power  ;  and  I  have 
been  urged  very  earnestly,  and  from  various  quarters, 
to  sweep  away  my  opponents,  and  provide  for  my 
friends  with  their  places.  I  can  justify  the  refusal  to 
adopt  this  policy  only  by  the  steadiness  and  consist 
ency  of  my  adhesion  to  my  own.  If  I  depart  from 
this  in  any  one  instance,  I  shall  be  called  upon  by  my 


148  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

friends  to  do  the  same  in  many.  An  invidious  and 
inquisitorial  scrutiny  into  the  personal  disposition  of 
public  officers  will  creep  through  the  whole  Union, 
and  the  most  sordid  and  selfish  passions  will  be  kin 
dled  into  activity,  to  distort  the  conduct  and  misrep 
resent  the  feelings  of  men,  whose  places  may  become 
the  prize  of  slander  upon  them.'' 

He  made  but  two  removals,  both  from  unquestion 
able  causes  ;  and,  in  his  new  appointments,  he  was 
scrupulous  in  selecting  candidates  whose  talents  were 
adapted  to  the  public  service.  It  was  averred,  in  the 
spirit  of  complaint  or  disappointment,  that  he  often 
conferred  offices  on  men  who  immediately  coincided 
with  the  opponents  and  became  calumniators  of  his 
administration.  He  was  soon  made  to  realize  the 
impracticability  of  disregarding  the  old  lines  of  party. 
On  being  informed,  by  some  of  his  friends  in  the 
Southern  States,  that  the  objections  to  the  appoint 
ment  of  Federalists  were  insuperable,  and  would  every 
where  affect  the  popularity  of  his  administration,  he 
observed  :  "  On  such  appointments  all  the  wormwood 
and  gall  of  the  old  party  hatred  ooze  out.  Not  a 
vacancy  to  any  office  occurs  but  there  is  a  distin 
guished  Federalist  started  and  pushed  home  as  a  can 
didate  to  fill  it,  always  well  qualified,  sometimes  in  an 
eminent  degree,  and  yet  so  obnoxious  to  the  Kepub- 
lican  party,  that  they  cannot  be  appointed  without 
exciting  a  vehement  clamor  against  him  and  the  admin 
istration.  It  becomes  thus  impossible  to  fill  any 
vacancy  in  appointment  without  offending  one  half 
of  the  community  —  the  Federalists,  if  their  associate 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  149 

is  overlooked  ;  the  Republicans,  if  he  be  preferred. 
To  this  disposition  justice  must  sometimes  make  resist 
ance,  and  policy  must  often  yield/' 

The  intention  of  Mr.  Adams,  avowed  and  invariably 
pursued,  to  make  integrity  and  qualification  the  only 
criterions  of  appointment  to  office,  —  to  remove  no 
incumbent  on  account  of  political  hostility,  and  to 
appoint  no  one  from  the  sole  consideration  of  political 
adherence,  —  diminished  the  power  of  the  administra 
tion.  The  most  active  members  of  party,  who  follow 
for  reward,  either  of  place  or  station,  were  discour 
aged,  and  preferred  to  continue  their  allegiance  to 
those  from  whom  pay  was  certain,  rather  than  to  trans 
fer  it  to  an  administration  whose  continuance,  from 
the  well-known  influences  on  which  political  power  in 
this  country  depends,  was  dubious,  and  probably  short 
lived.  These  consequences  were  familiar  to  the  mind 
of  Mr.  Adams  ;  but  his  spirit  was  of  a  temper  which 
chose  rather  to  fall  in  upholding  the  constitution  of 
his  country  on  its  true  and  pure  principles,  than  to 
become  the  abettor  of  corruption,  and  participator  in 
its  wages,  for  the  sake  of  power.  The  firmness  of 
these  principles  was  put  to  frequent  trial  during  his 
Presidency,  but  his  resolution  never  wavered. 

The  confiding  spirit  in  which  he  conducted  his  inter 
course  with  his  cabinet  was  thus  stated  by  himself  in 
November,  1825:  "I  have  given  the  draft  of  my 
annual  message  to  the  members  of  the  administration, 
who  are  to  meet  and  examine  it  by  themselves,  and 
then  discuss  the  result  with  me.  I  have  adopted  this 


150  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

mode  of  scrutinizing  the  message  because  I  wish  tc 
have  the  benefit  of  every  objection  that  can  be  made 
by  every  member  of  the  administration.  But  it  has 
never  been  practised  before,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  it 
will  be  a  safe  precedent  to  follow.  In  England  the 
message  or  speech  is  delivered  by  a  person  under  no 
responsibility  for  its  contents  ;  but  here,  where  he  who 
delivers  it  is  alone  responsible,  and  those  who  advise 
have  no  responsibility  at  all,  there  may  be  some  dan 
ger  in  placing  the  composition  of  it  under  the  control 
of  cabinet  members,  by  giving  it  up  to  discussion 
entirely  among  themselves." 

His  first  message  to  Congress  contained  the  follow 
ing  special  recommendations  :  "  The  maturing  into  a 
permanent  and  regular  system  the  application  of  all 
the  superfluous  revenues  of  the  Union  to  internal 
improvement."  "  The  establishment  of  a  uniform 
standard  of  weights  and  measures,  which  had  been  a 
duty  expressly  enjoined  on  Congress  by  the  constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States."  "The  establishment  of 
a  naval  school  of  instruction  for  the  formation  of  sci 
entific  and  accomplished  officers  ;  the  want  of  which 
is  felt  with  a  daily  and  increasing  aggravation." 
"  The  establishment  of  a  national  university,  which 
had  been  more  than  once  earnestly  recommended 
to  Congress  by  Washington,  and  for  which  he  had 
made  express  provision  in  his  will."  "  Connected 
with  a  university,  or  separated  from  it,  the  erec 
tion  of  an  astronomical  observatory^  with  provision 
for  the  support  of  an  astronomer."  Every  one 
of  these  recommendations  was  obviously  intimately 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  151 

associated  with  the  progress  and  character  of  the 
nation,  and  independent  of  all  personal  or  party  influ 
ences.  Yet  they  were  treated  with  utter  neglect,  or, 
after  having  been  permitted  to  pass  through  the  forms 
of  commitment  and  report,  were  suffered  to  lie  unno 
ticed  on  the  tables  of  both  houses,  or  to  be  lost  by 
indefinite  postponement. 

The  firmness  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  his  independence 
of  personal  considerations,  were  constantly  manifested. 
Thus,  in  November,  1825,  when  he  was  urged  by 
some  of  his  influential  friends  to  put  into  his  mes 
sage  something  soothing  to  South  Carolina,  he  replied  : 
"  South  Carolina  has  put  it  out  of  my  power.  She 
persists  in  a  law*  which  a  judge  of  the  United 
States  has  declared  to  be  in  direct  violation  of  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  which  the  Attor 
ney-General  of  the  United  States  has  also  declared  to 
be  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  foreign  nations  ; 
against  which  the  British  government  has  repeatedly 

*  In  the  year  1823  the  State  of  South  Carolina  passed  a  law  making  it  the 
duty  of  the  sheriff  of  any  district  to  apprehend  any  free  negro  or  person  of  color, 
brought  into  that  state  by  any  vessel,  and  confine  him  in  jail  until  such  vessel 
depart,  and  then  to  liberate  him  only  on  condition  of  payment  of  the  expenses 
of  such  detention.  To  this  law  William  Johnson,  a  South  Carolinian,  and  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Adams, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  called  the  attention  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  as  a  violation  of  the  constitution  ;  and  declared  his  belief  "  that  it  had 
been  passed  as  much  for  the  pleasure  of  bringing  the  functionaries  of  the  United 
States  into  contempt,  by  exposing  their  impotence,  as  from  any  other  cause 
whatsoever  ; "  they  being  precluded  from  resorting  to  the  writ  of  habeas  cor 
pus  and  injunction  because  the  cases  assumed  the  form  of  state  prosecutions. 
JVilliam  Wirt,  also,  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  in  a  letter  tc 
Mr.  Adams,  then  Secretary  of  State,  pronounced  that  law  "  as  being  against 
the  constitution,  treaties,  and  laws,  and  incompatible  with  the  rights  of  aP 
nations  in  amity  with  the  United  States." 


152  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

remonstrated,  and  upon  which  we  have  promised  them 
that  the  cause  of  complaint  should  be  removed  ;  —  a 
promise  which  the  obstinate  adherence  of  the  govern 
ment  of  South  Carolina  to  their  law  has  disenabled 
us  from  fulfilling.  The  Governor  of  South  Carolina 
has  not  even  answered  the  letter  from  the  Department 
of  State,  transmitting  to  them  the  complaint  of  the 
British  government  against  this  law.  In  this  state 
of  things,  for  me  to  say  anything  gratifying  to  the 
feelings  of  the  South  Carolinians  on  this  subject, 
would  be  to  abandon  the  ground  taken  by  the  admin 
istration  of  Mr.  Monroe,  and  disable  us  from  taking 
hereafter  measures  concerning  the  law,  which  we  may 
be  compelled  to  take.  To  be  silent  is  not  to  interfere 
with  any  state  rights,  and  renounces  no  right  of  our 
selves  or  others." 

The  same  trait  of  character  is  evidenced  by  his 
persisting  in  recommending  the  application  of  the 
superfluous  revenue  to  internal  improvements,  notwith 
standing  he  well  knew  its  unpopularity  in  Virginia, 
where  it  was  denounced  as  realizing  the  prophecy  of 
Patrick  Henry,  that  "  the  Federal  government  would 
be  a  magnificent  government."  After  delivering  his 
first  message,  he  was  told,  by  a  leading  and  influential 
member  of  Congress  from  Virginia,  that  "  excitement 
against  the  general  government  was  great  and  univer 
sal  in  that  state  ;  that  opinions  there  had  been  before 
divided,  but  that  now  the  whole  state  would  move  in 
one  solid  column."  And  the  same  member  read  to  him 
letters  from  Jefferson  and  Madison,  denouncing  the 
doctrines  of  the  message  in  the  most  emphatic  terms. 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  153 

A  letter  from  distinguished  friends  of  De  Witt 
Clinton,  stating  that  his  adherents  predominated  in 
the  Legislature  of  New  York,  and  recommending  a 
course  to  conciliate  their  influence,  was  shown  to  Mr. 
Adams  in  1826.  On  this  suggestion  he  remarked  : 
"  A  conciliatory  course,  so  far  as  may  be  compatible 
with  self-respect,  is  proper  and  necessary  towards  all ; 
but,  in  the  protracted  agony  of  character  and  reputa 
tion  which  it  is  the  will  of  a  superior  power  I  should 
pass  through,  it  is  my  duty  to  link  myself  to  the  for 
tunes  of  no  man.  In  the  balance  of  politics  it  is 
seldom  wise  to  make  one  scale  preponderate  by  weights 
taken  from  another.  Neutrality  towards  parties  is  the 
proper  policy  of  a  President  in  office." 

When  officially  informed  that  a  senator  from  Georgia 
threatened  that,  unless  the  lands  of  the  Creek  Indians, 
claimed  by  that  state  as  within  its  boundaries,  were 
ceded,  her  weight  would  be  thrown  for  General  Jack 
son,  Mr.  Adams  replied,  "  that  we  ought  not  to  yield 
to  Georgia,  because  we  could  not  do  so  without  gross 
injustice  ;  and  that,  as  to  her  being  driven  to  support 
General  Jackson,  he  felt  little  care  about  that.  He 
had  no  more  confidence  in  the  one  party  than  the 
other." 

A  similar  reply  was  made  to  an  influential  New 
York  politician,  who  told  him  that  the  friends  of  De 
Witt  Clinton  would  probably  support  the  administra 
tion,  but  that  Van  Buren  and  his  bucktails  would  be 
inveterate  in  their  opposition.  "I  consider  it,"  said 
he,  "  a  lottery-ticket  whether  either  of  those  parties 
would  support  the  administration." 


154     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

The  opposition  to  the  election,  and  subsequently  to 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams,  in  the  South,  had 
its  origin  and  support,  as  we  have  seen,  first,  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  (with  the  exception  of  his  father)  the 
only  President  who  had  not  been  a  slaveholder  ;  and, 
next,  in  the  fixed  determination,  in  that  section  of  the 
Union,  to  keep  the  Presidency,  if  possible,  in  the  hands 
of  an  individual  belonging  to  that  class.  If,  from  cir 
cumstances,  this  should  be  no  longer  practicable,  then 
their  policy  would  be  to  select  a  candidate  who  had  no 
sympathy  for  the  slave,  and  whose  subserviency  to  the 
supremacy  of  Southern  interests  was  unquestionable. 
The  attempt  to  extinguish  slavery  in  Missouri,  although 
it  had  resulted  in  what  was  called  the  Missouri  com 
promise,  had  created  towards  all  who  were  not  slave 
holders  a  feverish  jealousy  in  the  South,  which  de 
scended  on  Mr.  Adams  with  double  violence  because 
his  free  spirit  was  known.  This  was  not  diminished 
by  the  fact  that  he  had,  neither  in  act  nor  language, 
ever  transcended  the  provisions  of  the  constitution, 
but  had,  in  every  instance,  fully  recognized  its  obli 
gations. 

In  February,  1826,  two  resolutions,  which  had 
been  adopted  in  executive  session,  were  brought  to 
Mr.  Adams.  The  first  declared  "  that  the  expediency 
of  the  Panama  mission  ought  to  be  debated  in  Sen 
ate  with  open  doors,  unless  the  publication  of  the 
documents,  to  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  refer  in 
debate,  would  prejudice  existing  negotiations.  The 
second  was  a  respectful  request  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  inform  the  Senate  whether  such 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  155 

objection  exists  to  the  publication  of  all  or  any  part 
of  those  documents  ;  and,  if  so,  to  specify  to  what 
part  it  applies." 

66  These  resolutions,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "are  the 
fruit  of  the  ingenuity  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  and  bear 
the  impress  of  his  character.  The  resolution  to  debate 
an  executive  nomination  with  open  doors  is  without 
example  ;  and  the  thirty-sixth  rule  of  the  Senate  is 
explicit  and  unqualified,  that  all  documents  communi 
cated  in  confidence  by  the  President  to  the  Senate 
shall  be  kept  secret  by  the  members.  The  request  to 
me  to  specify  the  particular  documents  the  publication 
of  which  would  affect  negotiations  was  delicate  and 
ensnaring.  The  limitation  was  not  of  papers  the  pub 
lication  of  which  might  be  injurious,  but  merely  of 
such  as  would  affect  existing  negotiations  ;  and,  this 
being  necessarily  a  matter  of  opinion,  if  I  should 
specify  passages  in  the  document  as  of  such  a  charac- 
»,er,  any  senator  might  make  it  a  question  for  discus 
sion  in  the  Senate,  and  they  might  finally  publish  the 
whole,  under  color  of  entertaining  an  opinion  different 
from  mine  upon  the  probable  effect  of  the  publication. 
Besides,  should  the  precedent  once  be  established  of 
opening  the  doors  of  the  Senate  in  the  midst  of  a 
debate  upon  executive  business,  there  would  be  no 
prospect  of  ever  keeping  them  shut  again.  I  answered 
the  resolution  of  the  Senate  by  a  message  stating  that 
all  the  communications  I  had  made  on  this  subject  had 
been  confidential ;  and  that,  believing  it  important  to 
the  public  interest  that  the  confidence  between  the 
Executive  and  the  Senate  should  continue  unimpaired, 


156  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

I  should  leave  to  themselves  the  determination  of  a 
question,  upon  the  motives  of  which,  not  being  in 
formed,  I  was  not  competent  to  decide." 

When  the  intrigues  which  embarrassed  and  dis 
turbed  the  Presidency  of  Mr.  Adams  were  in  full 
vigor,  his  spirit  and  strength  of  character  were  conspic 
uously  manifested.  In  April,  1827,  whilst  the  state 
elections  were  pending,  letters  were  shown  to  him 
complaining  that  the  administration  did  not  support 
its  friends,  and  intimating  that  time  and  money  must 
be  sacrificed  to  his  success.  Mr.  Adams  remarked  : 
"  I  have  observed  the  tendency  of  our  elections  to 
venality,  and  shall  not  encourage  it.  There  is  much 
money  expended  by  the  adversaries  of  the  administra 
tion,  and  it  runs  chiefly  in  the  channels  of  the  press. 
They  work  by  slander  to  vitiate  the  public  spirit,  and 
pay  for  defamation,  to  receive  their  reward  in  votes." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  third  year  of  his  term  of 
office  the  currents  of  party  began  to  run  strongly 
towards  the  approaching  struggle  for  the  Presidency. 
Mr.  Adams,  writing  concerning  the  aspects  of  the 
time,  remarked  .  "  General  politics  and  electioneering 
topics  appear  to  be  the  only  material  of  interest  and 
of  discourse  to  men  in  the  public  service.  There  are 
in  several  states,  at  this  time,  and  Maryland  is  one  of 
them,  meetings  and  counter  meetings,  committees  of 
correspondence,  delegations,  and  addresses,  for  and 
against  the  administration  ;  and  thousands  of  persons 
are  occupied  with  little  else  than  to  work  up  the  pas 
sions  of  the  people  preparatory  to  the  presidential 
election,  still  more  than  eighteen  months  distant." 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  157 

Complaints  were  constantly  made  that  the  adminis 
tration  neglected  its  friends,  and  gave  offices  to  its 
enemies.  Applications  for  appointments,  especially 
for  clerkships,  in  the  departments,  were  continual, 
and  were  often  made  to  Mr.  Adams  himself.  He 
always  refused  to  interfere  directly,  or  by  influence, 
unless  his  opinion  was  sought  by  the  heads  of  the 
departments  themselves,  saying  that  to  them  the  selec 
tion  and  responsibility  properly  belonged.  "  One  of 
the  heaviest  burdens  of  my  station/'  he  observed,  "is 
to  hear  applications  for  office,  often  urged,  accompa 
nied  with  the  cry  of  distress,  almost  every  day  in  the 
year,  sometimes  several  times  in  the  day,  and  having 
it  scarcely  ever  in  my  power  to  administer  the  desired 
relief/' 

In  May,  1827,  Mr.  Adams  wrote  to  a  friend  :  "  Mr. 
Van  Buren  paid  me  a  visit  this  morning.  He  is  on 
his  return  from  a  tour  through  Virginia,  North  and 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  with  C.  C.  Cambreling, 
since  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress.  They 
are  generally  understood  to  be  electioneering ;  and 
Van  Buren  is  now  the  great  manager  for  Jackson, 
as  he  was,  before  the  last  election,  for  Mr.  Crawford. 
He  is  now  acting  over  the  part  in  the  Union  which 
Aaron  Burr  performed  in  1799.  Van  Buren,  how 
ever,  has  improved,  in  the  art  of  electioneering,  upon 
Burr,  as  the  State  of  New  York  has  grown  in  relative 
strength  and  importance  in  the  Union.  Van  Buren 
has  now  every  prospect  of  success  in  his  present  move 
ments,  and  he  will  avoid  the  rock  on  which  Burr  after 
wards  split."  These  general  conclusions,  formed  on 


158  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

observation  and  knowledge  of  character,  projects,  and 
movements,  time  has  proved  to  be  just.  At  this  day 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  during  a  tour  through  the 
Southern  section  of  the  Union,  in  April  and  May,  1827, 
by  Van  Buren  and  Cambreling,  one  a  senator,  the  other 
a  representative  in  Congress  from  New  York,  an  alli 
ance  was  formed  between  the  former  and  Jackson, 
having  for  its  object  to  supersede  Mr.  Adams  and  to 
elevate  themselves  in  succession  to  the  Presidency. 
The  result  is  illustrative  of  the  means  and  the  arts 
by  which  ambition  shapes  the  destinies  of  republics, 
by  pampering  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  mul 
titude,  by  casting  malign  suggestions  on  laborious 
merit,  effective  talent,  and  faithful  services. 

In  June,  1827,  some  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Adams 
urged  him  to  attend  the  celebration  at  the  opening  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Canal,  to  meet  the  German  farm 
ers,  and  speak  to  them  in  their  own  language.  He 
replied  :  "  I  am  highly  obliged  to  my  friends  for  their 
good  opinion  ;  but  this  mode  of  electioneering  is  suited 
neither  to  my  taste  nor  my  principles.  I  think  it 
equally  unsuitable  to  my  personal  character,  and  to  the 
station  in  which  I  am  placed." 

As  the  year  drew  towards  the  close,  Van  Buren, 
who  had  increased  his  influence  by  union  with  I)e 
Witt  Clinton,  triumphed  throughout  the  State  of  New 
York.  "  The  consequences, "  said  Mr.  Adams,  "are 
decisive  on  the  next  presidential  election  ;  but  the 
principles  on  which  my  administration  has  been  con 
ducted  cannot  be  overthrown.  A  session  of  Congress 
of  unexampled  violence  and  fury  is  anticipated  by  its 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  159 

friends.  My  own  mind  is  made  up  for  it.  I  have 
only  to  ask  that  as  my  day  is  so  may  my  strength  be." 

A  letter  from  Thomas  Mann  Eandolph,  on  the  opin 
ions  of  Mr.  Jefferson  relative  to  the  last  presiden 
tial  election,  which  had  been  recently  published  in 
Ohio,  was  at  this  time  shown  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  it 
was  proposed  to  him  to  publish  a  letter  to  his  father 
from  Mr.  Jefferson,  on  that  subject ;  which  he  declined, 
saying:  "  The  letter  is  not  here,  but  if  it  were  I 
would  not  publish  it.  I  possess  it  only  as  executor 
to  my  father  ;  and,  it  having  been  confidential,  the 
executors  of  Mr.  Jefferson  have  undoubtedly  a  copy 
of  it,  and,  as  depositaries  of  his  confidence,  are  the 
only  persons  who  can,  with  propriety,  authorize  its 
publication."  He  added:  "The  divulging  private 
and  confidential  letters  is  one  of  the  worst  features 
of  electioneering  practised  among  us.  Though  often 
tempted  and  provoked  to  it,  I  have  constantly  refrained 
from  it." 

At  this  period  Mr.  Rush  read  to  Mr.  Adams  his 
report  on  the  finances,  in  which  he  largely  discussed 
the  policy  of  encouraging  and  protecting  domestic 
manufactures.  "  It  will,  of  course,"  said  Mr.  Adams, 
"  be  roughly  handled  in  Congress  and  out  of  it ;  but 
the  policy  it  recommends  will  outlive  the  blast  of 
faction,  and  abide  the  test  of  time." 

At  the  opening  of  the  Twentieth  Congress,  in 
December,  1827,  the  election  of  Andrew  Stevenson, 
of  Virginia,  a  man  decidedly  hostile  to  the  adminis 
tration,  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
manifested  that  the  opposition  hud  now  gained  a 


160  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

majority  in  both  houses  of  Congress  ;  a  state  of  affairs 
which  had  never  before  occurred  under  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Adams,  being  informed  that  it  was  Mr.  Clay's 
intention  to  issue  another  pamphlet  in  refutation  of 
the  charge  of  bargaining  and  corruption,  which  Gen 
eral  Jackson  and  his  partisans  under  his  authority 
had  brought  against  them  both,  remarked:  "They 
have  been  already  amply  refuted  ;  but,  in  the  excite 
ment  of  contested  elections,  and  of  party  spirit, 
judgment  becomes  the  slave  of  the  will.  Men  of 
intelligence,  talent,  and  even  of  integrity  upon  other 
occasions,  surrender  themselves  to  their  passions,  be 
lieve  anything,  with  and  without,  and  even  against 
evidence,  according  as  it  suits  their  own  wishes." 

Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  were  not  disposed  to  permit 
a  calumny  so  opprobrious  to  pass  without  disproof ;  yet 
during  two  years  they  could  only  oppose  to  it  a  gen 
eral  denial ;  but,  in  March,  1827,  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Carter  Beverly,  a  friend  of  General  Jackson,  came  into 
their  possession,  by  which  it  appeared  that  Jackson, 
before  a  large  company,  in  Beverly's  presence,  had 
declared  that,  "  concerning  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams 
to  the  Presidency,  Mr.  Clay's  friends  made  a  proposi 
tion  to  his  friends,  that  if  they  would  promise  for  him 
not  to  put  Mr.  Adams  into  the  seat  of  Secretary  of 
State,  Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  would  in  one  hour 
make  him  the  President;"*  —  a  proposition  which, 
Jackson  said,  he  indignantly  rejected.  No  sooner  was 

*  JVt7««'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxxn.,  p.  162. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  161 

this  statement  made  known  to  Mr.  Clay,  than  he  pro 
nounced  it  "a  gross  fabrication,  of  a  calumnious  char 
acter,  put  forth  for  the  double  purpose  of  injuring  his 
public  character  and  propping  up  the  cause  of  General 
Jackson  ;  and  that,  for  himself  and  his  friends,  he 
defied  the  substantiation  of  the  charge  before  any  fair 
tribunal  whatever."  This  compelled  General  Jackson, 
in  self-defence,  to  come  before  the  public  ;  and  in  a 
letter  to  Carter  Beverly,  dated  the  5th  of  June,  1827, 
he  made  specific  charges  against  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr. 
Adams.  He  stated  that  early  in  January,  1825,  a 
member  of  Congress,  of  high  respectability,  informed 
him  that  there  was  a  great  intrigue  going  on,  which 
it  was  right  he  should  know  ;  that  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Adams  had  made  overtures  to  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay, 
that  if  they  would  unite  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  Clay  should  be  Secretary  of  State ;  that  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Adams  were  urging,  as  a  reason  to 
induce  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay  to  accede  to  their  prop 
osition,  that  if  he  (Gen.  Jackson)  was  elected  Presi 
dent,  Mr.  Adams  would  be  continued  Secretary  of 
State  [Innuendo ,  there  would  be  no  room  for  Ken 
tucky]  ;  that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay  stated,  that  the 
West  did  not  wish  to  separate  from  the  West,  and 
if  he  would  say,  or  permit  any  of  his  confidential 
friends  to  say,  that,  in  case  he  was  elected  Presi 
dent,  Mr.  Adams  should  not  be  continued  Secretary 
of  State,  by  a  complete  union  of  Mr.  Clay  and  his 
friends  they  would  put  an  end  to  the  presidential  con 
test  in  one  hour  ;  and  that  this  respectable  member  of 
Congress  declared  that  he  was  of  opinion  it  was  right 
11 


162  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

to  fight  such  intriguers  with  their  own  weapons.  To 
which  General  Jackson  replied,  that  he  would  never 
step  into  the  presidential  chair  by  such  means  of 
bargain  and  corruption ;  and  added,  that  the  second 
day  after  this  communication  and  reply,  it  was 
announced  in  the  newspapers  that  Mr.  Clny  had  come 
out  openly  and  avowedly  in  favor  of  Mr.  Adams.* 

To  this  accusation  Mr.  Clay,  in  a  letter  to  the  pub 
lic,  dated  the  4th  of  July,  1827,  made  "  a  direct, 
unqualified,  and  indignant  denial/'  and  called  on 
General  Jackson  "  to  substantiate  his  charges  by  sat 
isfactory  evidence."  General  Jackson  immediately 
gave  to  the  public  the  name  of  James  Buchanan,  of 
Pennsylvania,  as  "the  respectable  member  of  Con 
gress"  who  made  to  him  this  communication  and 
proposition.  This  declaration  compelled  Mr.  Buchanan 
to  come  before  the  public  ;  who  accordingly,  in  a  let 
ter  dated  the  8th  of  August,  1827,t  published  to  the 
world  what  he  declared  to  be  c '  the  only  conversation 
which  he  ever  held  with  General  Jackson,"  in  which  he 
stated  to  him  that,  having  heard  a  rumor  that  he  in 
tended,  in  case  of  his  election,  to  appoint  Mr.  Adams 
Secretary  of  State,  and  thinking  such  an  appointment 
would  f '  cool  the  ardor  of  his  friends,"  he  called  on  him, 
and  informed  him  of  the  rumor,  and  asked  him  whether 
he  had  ever  intimated  such  intention ;  that  Jackson 
replied  he  had  not,  and  that,  if  elected  President,  he 
would  enter  upon  the  office  untrammelled  ;  and  that 
this  was  substantially  the  whole  conversation.  Mr. 

*  JVt/es'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxxn.,  p.  316.        t  Ibid.,  p.  415. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS/          163 

Buchanan  added,  that  he  did  not  call  upon  General 
Jackson  as  the  agent  of  Mr.  Clay,  or  his  friends,  which 
he  was  not ;  and  that  he  was  incapable  of  entertaining 
the  opinion  Jackson  had  charged  him  with,  that  "it 
was  right  to  fight  such  intriguers  with  their  own  weap 
ons  ; ' '  and  that  he  thought  that  Jackson  ' c  could  not 
have  received  this  impression  until  after  Mr.  Clay  and 
his  friends  had  actually  elected  Mr.  Adams  President, 
and  Mr.  Adams  had  appointed  Mr.  Clay  Secretary  of 
State." 

A  more  full,  direct,  and  conclusive  contradiction 
of  every  fact  asserted  by  General  Jackson  is  impos 
sible.  Yet  it  had  no  effect  upon  his  prospects  or 
policy.  His  partisans  continued  to  propagate  the 
calumny,  and  profess  their  belief  in  it ;  and  he  gave 
encouragement  to  this  course  by  maintaining  a  scru 
pulous  silence  on  Mr.  Buchanan's  contradiction.  Mr. 
Clay,  speaking  on  this  point,  observed:  "After  Mr. 
Buchanan's  statement  appeared,  there  were  many  per 
sons  who  believed  that  General  Jackson's  magnanimity 
would  immediately  prompt  him  to  retract  his  charge. 
I  did  not  participate  in  that  just  expectation,  and 
therefore  felt  no  disappointment  that  it  was  not  real 
ized."* 

The  calumny  had  done  its  work.  It  had  been,  for 
more  than  two  years,  cankering  the  public  mind.  Gen 
eral  Jackson  realized  that  it  was  an  efficient  means  of 
victory,  and  was  not  disposed  to  diminish  its  power. 
His  partisans,  as  Mr.  Adams  anticipated,  had  "  sur 

*  Niles*  Register,  vol.  xxxiu.,  p.  297. 


164          MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS. 

rendered  themselves  to  their  passions,  and  believed, 
without  evidence  and  against  evidence,  as  suited  their 
own  wishes/' 

The  inveteracy  of  opposition  to  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Adams  was  systematic,  violent,  and  unprincipled. 
Party  spirit  determined  that  it  should  be  prostrated. 
It  was  stated  publicly  that  { £  a  highly-respected  mem 
ber  of  Congress,  of  General  Jackson's  party,  had 
declared  that  it  was  to  be  put  down  though  it  be  as 
pure  as  the  angels  which  stand  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  throne  of  God."  No  respect  was  paid,  no  regard 
had,  for  either  faithful  services  or  acknowledged  integ 
rity.  An  administration  conducted  on  the  most  ele 
vated  and  consistent  principles,  as  far  above  party  and 
selfish  motives  as  it  is  possible  for  human  beings  to 
attain,  was  destined  to  be  sacrificed.  General  Jack 
son  entered  upon  his  civil  career  in  the  spirit  of  a 
military  chieftain.  He  knew  well  how  to  collect 
round  his  standard  those  intriguers  in  the  free  states 
who  were  content  to  adopt  his  badge,  and  ride  into 
power  in  his  train.  Of  the  slave  states  he  was  sure, 
from  both  affinity  and  policy. 

Mr.  Clay,  in  his  address  to  the  public  in  December, 
1827,  thus  represents  the  spirit  of  General  Jackson's 
party  at  that  period  :  *  ' e  The  rancor  of  party  spirit 
spares  nothing.  It  penetrates  and  pervades  every 
where.  It  does  not  scruple  to  violate  the  sanctity  of 
social  and  private  intercourse.  It  substitutes  for  facts 
dark  surmises  and  malevolent  insinuations.  It  mis- 

*  Wiles'  Register,  vol.  xxxin.,  p.  303. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  165 

represents,  and  holds  up  in  false  and  insidious  lights, 
incidents  perfectly  harmless  in  themselves,  of  ordinary 
occurrence,  or  of  mere  common  civility." 

During  these  agitations  Mr.  Adams  was  diligently 
watching  over  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  and 
assiduously  fulfilling  the  duties  of  his  station,  and  no 
further  interesting  himself  in  the  struggles  of  party 
than  when  compelled  to  notice  them  by  their  virulence, 
or  by  the  earnestness  of  political  friends.  A  member 
of  the  Senate  having  asked  him  how  the  interdiction 
of  commerce  by  our  vessels  with  the  British  colonies 
could  be  counteracted,  "My  opinion  is,"  he  replied, 
"  that  there  should  be  an  act  of  Congress  totally  inter 
dicting  the  trade  with  all  her  colonies,  both  in  the 
West  Indies  and  North  America  ;  but  the  same  act 
should  provide  for  reopening  the  trade,  upon  terms  of 
reciprocity,  whenever  Great  Britain  should  be  disposed 
to  assent  to  them." 

Early  in  1828  Mr.  Adams  was  informed  that  the 
question  of  Free-masonry  was  the  conclusive  criterion 
on  which  the  elections  in  the  western  parts  of  the  State 
of  New  York  would  turn  ;  and  that  it  was  industri 
ously  circulated  that  he  was  a  Free-mason.  If  the 
assertion  was  denied,  offers  had  been  made  to  produce 
extracts  from  the  books  of  the  lodge  to  which  he 
belonged.  He  was,  therefore,  requested  publicly  to 
deny  being  a  Mason.  He  replied,  that  he  was  not,  and 
never  had  been,  a  Free-mason  ;  but  that,  if  he  should 
publicly  deny  it,  he  would  not  be  surprised  if  a  forged 
extract  from  some  imaginary  lodge  should  be  produced 


166     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

to  counteract  his  statement.     Such  are  the  morals  of 
electioneering  ! 

On  the  subject  of  the  Indians  in  the  State  of 
Georgia  Mr.  Adams  said:  "Our  engagements  with 
them  and  among  ourselves,  in  relation  to  the  lands 
lying  within  that  state,  are  inconsistent.  We  have 
contracted  with  the  State  of  Georgia  to  extinguish  the 
title  to  the  Indian  lands  lying  within  that  state,  and 
at  the  same  time  have  stipulated  with  the  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  that  they  should  hold  their  lands  forever. 
We  have  talked  about  benevolence  and  humanity,  and 
preached  them  into  civilization  ;  but  none  of  this 
benevolence  is  felt  when  the  rights  of  the  Indians 
come  into  collision  with  the  interests  of  the  white  man. 
The  Cherokees  have  now  been  making  a  written  con 
stitution  ;  but  this  imperium  in  imperio  is  impracti 
cable  ;  and,  in  the  instance  of  the  New  York  Indians 
removed  to  Green  Bay,  and  of  the  Cherokees  removed 
to  the  Territory  of  Arkansas,  we  have  scarce  given 
them  time  to  build  their  wigwams  before  we  are  called 
upon  by  our  own  people  to  drive  them  out  again.  My 
own  opinion  is  that  the  most  benevolent  course  towards 
them  would  be  to  give  them  the  rights  and  subject 
them  to  the  duties  of  citizens,  as  a  part  of  our  own 
people.  But  even  this  tlje  people  of  the  states  within 
which  they  are  situated  would  not  permit." 

In  January,  1828,  Mr.  Adams  received  a  letter 
from  his  friends  in  Pennsylvania,  proposing  a  subscrip 
tion  for  the  purchase  and  setting  up  a  German  news 
paper  in  support  of  the  administration,  and  inquir 
ing  if  he  would  permit  his  son,  John  Adams,  ta 


MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.      167 

contribute  to  that  object.  He  replied  that,  on  full 
consideration  of  the  transaction,  he  deemed  it  his  duty 
to  decline  ;  that  how  far  the  employment  of  money 
to  promote  the  success  of  the  election  might  be  proper 
in  others,  it  was  not  for  him  to  determine  ;  he  could 
only  lament  the  necessity,  if  it  existed  ;  but  to  apply 
money  himself  for  the  promotion  of  his  own  election 
he  thought  incorrect  in  principle,  and  had  invariably 
avoided  it.  He  knew  that  others  were  less  scrupu 
lous,  and  that  it  had  been  done  by  one  individual  to 
the  pecuniary  embarrassment  of  his  whole  life.  He 
had  been  solicited  to  adopt  a  like  course,  but  had  uni 
formly  declined,  not  from  pecuniary  considerations, 
but  because  he  could  not  approve  of  the  thing. 

In  January,  1828,  Mr.  Floyd,  of  Virginia,  who 
had  taken  upon  himself  the  inglorious  office  of  hunt 
ing  up  and  disseminating  malign  aspersions  against 
President  Adams,  brought  before  the  House  of 
Representatives  statements  concerning  his  accounts, 
which  had  been  long  before  settled  at  the  treasury 
of  the  United  States ;  and,  after  recapitulating 
the  number  of  the  public  offices  he  had  held,  and 
swelling  to  the  utmost  the  amount  he  had  received 
out  of  the  public  treasury,  terminated  his  censorious 
attack  with  the  mean  sneer  that  he  did  not  com 
plain,  since  every  man  should  make  his  own  living, 
if  he  can.  To  this,  Mr.  Everett,  of  Massachusetts, 
replied,  with  truth  and  dignity,  that  whatever  Mr. 
Adams  had  received,  be  it  great  or  small,  was  sanc 
tioned  by  other  administrations,  with  which  Mr.  Adams 
had  nothing  to  do,  either  in  establishing  the  office 


168     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

fixing  the  compensations,  or  seeking  the  employment 
For  a  third  of  a  century  passed  in  the  service  of 
his  country,  neither  he,  nor  his  friends  for  him, 
with  his  knowledge  nor  without  his  knowledge,  ever 
solicited  any  public  office  or  employment ;  and  that, 
taking  into  consideration  the  number  of  years  passed 
by  him  in  the  public  service,  and  the  variety  and 
importance  of  the  missions  with  which  he  had  been 
intrusted  in  whole  or  in  part,  no  foreign  minister  had 
ever  received  less  than  Mr.  Adams,  while  many  have 
received  more.  These  statements  he  supported  by 
many  minute,  accurate,  and  unanswerable  details. 
In  a  like  spirit  Mr.  Sargent,  of  Philadelphia,  repro 
bated  and  refuted  the  calumnies  uttered  against  the 
administration  relative  to  these  accounts. 

In  January,  1828,  Mr.  Chilton,  of  Kentucky,  intro 
duced  a  resolution  into  the  House  of  Representatives, 
declaring  the  necessity  of  retrenchments,  to  save  money 
and  pay  off  the  national  debt ;  and  proposing  reduc 
tions  not  only  in  executive  contingencies,  but  also  in 
those  of  the  two  houses.  This  movement  disconcerted 
the  party  to  which  Mr.  Chilton  belonged.  They  were 
disposed  to  point  the  battery  against  the  administra 
tion,  but  charges  of  abusive  applications  of  the  public 
moneys  by  the  past  as  well  as  the  present  administra 
tion,  and  both  houses  of  Congress,  did  not  suit  party 
purposes.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  Ingham,  of  Penn 
sylvania,  and  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  accordingly 
strove,  by  amendments,  to  narrow  down  the  discussion 
so  as  to  make  it  bear  upon  Mr.  Adams  or  Mr.  Clay, 
and  to  give  countenance  to  every  slander  with  which 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  169 

the  newspapers  were  teeming  against  them,  but  dep 
recating  all  general  investigations. 

Being  repeatedly  asked  concerning  his  rule  of  con 
duct  relative  to  appointments  to  office,  Mr.  Adams 
answered  :  "  My  system  has  been,  and  continues  to 
be,  to  nominate  for  reappOintment  all  officers,  for  a 
term  of  years,  whose  commissions  expire,  unless  offi 
cial  or  moral  misconduct  is  charged  and  substantiated 
against  them.  This  does  not  suit  the  Falstaff  friends 
'  who  follow  for  the  reward  ; '  and  I  am  importuned  to 
serve  my  friends,  and  reproached  for  neglecting  them, 
because  I  will  not  dismiss,  or  drop  from  executive 
favor,  officers  faithful  and  able,  because  they  are  my 
political  opponents,  to  provide  for  my  own  partisans. 
This  I  will  not  do." 

In  February,  1828,  Mr.  Wright,  of  Ohio,  de 
fended  Mr.  Adams  and  his  administration,  on  the 
subject  of  his  votes  in  the  Senate  on  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana,  on  the  Mississippi  and  fishery  question  at 
Ghent,  on  an  expression  in  his  message  to  Congress 
in  December,  1825,  and  other  charges  and  falsehoods 
which  the  friends  of  General  Jackson  were  publishing 
against  him  in  newspapers,  handbills,  and  stump 
speeches,  throughout  the  Union. 

Mr.  Adams  was  earnestly  entreated  by  his  friends 
to  reply  to  a  pamphlet  by  Samuel  D.  Ingham,  of 
which  many  thousands  had  been  franked  by  members 
of  Congress  to  their  constituents.  He  refused  to 
do  it,  saying,  "The  slanders  and  falsehoods  of  that 
pamphlet  have  already  been  abundantly  refuted  in  the 


170  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

speeches  of  Jonathan  Koberts,  Edward  Everett,  and 
John  C.  Wright." 

In  the  committee  on  retrenchments,  Mr.  Wickliffe 
and  Mr.  Ingham  were  extremely  busy  in  search  of 
charges  against  the  administration,  and  asserted  that 
there  was  a  large  item  of  secret  services,  vouched  only 
by  the  certificate  of  Mr.  Adams.  A  member  of  Con 
gress  informed  him  of  their  proceedings,  and  asked,  if 
there  should  be  any  clamorers  on  that  subject,  whether 
he  would  have  any  objection  to  make  a  communication 
with  regard  to  it.  Mr.  Adams  replied  :  "  Certainly. 
The  secret  was  enjoined  on  me  by  the  constitution  and 
the  law,  and  I  shall  not  divulge  it.  It  might  be 
alleged  as  probable  —  and  such  was  the  fact  —  that, 
although  the  accounts  had  been  but  lately  settled, 
the  expenditures  had  been  incurred  and  the  pay 
ment  authorized  by  the  direction  of  the  late  President 
Monroe." 

As  the  electioneering  struggle  was  progressing,  Mr. 
Adams,  being  asked  to  advance  money  in  aid  of  his 
own  election,  replied  :  "  The  Presidency  of  the  United 
States  is  not  an  office  to  be  either  sought  or  declined. 
To  pay  money  for  securing  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  incor 
rect  in  principle.  The  practices  of  all  parties  are 
tending  to  render  elections  altogether  venal,  and  I 
am  not  disposed  to  countenance  them." 

On  the  subject  of  personal  interviews  with  the 
President,  he  thus  expressed  himself:  "  I  have  never 
denied  access  to  me  as  President  to  any  one,  of 
any  color ;  and,  in  my  opinion  of  the  duties  of  that 
office,  it  never  ought  to  be  denied.  Place-hunters 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  171 

are  not  pleasant  visitors,  or  correspondents,  and  they 
consume  an  enormous  disproportion  of  time.  To  this 
personal  importunity  the  President  ought  not  to  be 
subjected ;  but  it  is,  perhaps,  not  possible  to  relieve 
him  from  it,  without  excluding  him  from  interviews 
with  the  people  more,  perhaps,  than  comports  with 
the  nature  of  our  institutions." 

In  Kentucky  the  Senate  of  the  state  constituted 
itself  into  an  inquisition  on  a  charge  against  Mr. 
Adams  of  corruption,  sent  for  persons  and  papers,  and 
invited  ex  parte  depositions  and  garbled  statements, 
where  the  parties  inculpated  had  no  opportunity  of 
being  heard,  and  where  the  testimony  given  and  the 
testimony  suppressed  were  alike  adapted  to  promote 
groundless  slanders. 

In  South  Carolina  movements  were  made  towards 
civil  war  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  the  election  by  intimidation,  or, 
if  they  should  fail  in  that,  of  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  future  forcible  resistance,  to  break  down  or  over 
awe  the  administration  after  the  event. 

Evidences  of  the  vehement  party  war  stimulated 
and  personally  waged  by  General  Jackson  against  Mr. 
Adams  might  be  easily  multiplied  ;  but  enough  has 
been  stated  to  vindicate  the  character  of  his  adminis 
tration  and  the  judgment  of  Henry  Clay.  By  daring 
to  exercise  his  constitutional  rights,  by  taking  the 
responsibility  of  preferring  Mr.  Adams  to  General 
Jackson,  Mr.  Clay  postponed  for  four  years  an  admin 
istration  characteristic  of  its  leader,  violent,  intriguing, 
headstrong,  and  corrupt.  After  the  passions  and  inter- 


172  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

ests  of  the  present  day  have  passed  away,  his  vote  on 
that  occasion  will  be  regarded  by  posterity  as  his 
choicest  and  purest  title  to  their  remembrance. 

To  aid  the  adversaries  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  to  awaken 
against  him  in  the  Northern  States,  where  his  strength 
lay,  the  dormant  passions  of  former  times,  the  name 
and  influence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  were  brought  into  the 
field.  In  December,  1825,  a  letter  had  been  drawn 
from  him,  by  William  B.  Giles,  a  devoted  partisan  of 
Jackson,  and  given  to  the  public  with  appropriate 
commentaries  and  asperities.  In  this  letter  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  after  acknowledging  that  "his  memory  was  so 
broken,  or  gone,  as  to  be  almost  a  blank,"  undertook 
to  relate  a  conversation  he  had  with  Mr.  Adams 
in  1808,  and  connected  it  with  facts  with  which  it 
had  no  relation,  and  which  occurred  several  years 
afterwards,  while  Mr.  Adams  was  in  Europe.  These 
mistakes,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Adams,  required 
explanations.  He,  therefore,  gave  a  full  statement 
of  the  facts,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  and  of  the 
communications  he  had  made  in  1808  to  Mr.  Jeffer 
son.  These  explanations  had  the  tendency  which 
Mr.  Giles  and  the  authors  of  the  scheme  intended ; 
but  the  controversies  which  ensued  are  not  within  the 
scope  of  this  memoir.  Feelings  and  passions,  which 
had  slept  for  almost  twenty  years,  were  awakened. 
Correspondences  ensued,  in  which  the  policy  and  events 
of  a  former  period  were  discussed  with  earnestness  and 
warmth.  But  the  ultimate  object,  for  which  the 
broken  and  incoherent  recollections  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
old  age  were  brought  before  the  public,  was  not 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  173 

attained.  Those  who  differed  from  the  opinions  of 
Mr.  Adams,  and  had  condemned  his  political  course 
in  former  times,  although  their  sentiments  remained 
unchanged,  were  satisfied  with  the  principles  and 
ability  he  evinced  in  his  present  high  station,  and 
indicated  no  inclination  to  aid  the  projects  of  his  oppo 
nents.  The  embers  of  former  animosity  were  indeed 
uncovered,  but  in  the  Eastern  States,  where  the  friends 
of  Mr.  Adams  were  most  numerous,  no  disposition 
was  evinced  to  favor  the  elevation  of  General  Jackson 
to  the  Presidency. 

In  other  sections  of  the  Union  a  combination  of 
influences  tended  to  defeat  the  reelection  of  Mr.  Adams. 
In  Virginia  William  B.  Giles  engaged  in  giving  pub 
licity  to  violent  and  inflammatory  papers  against 
his  administration  ;  Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri, 
strenuously  endeavored  to  destroy  his  popularity  in 
the  West ;  while  Martin  Van  Buren,  the  leader  of 
the  party  --which  then  controlled  New  York,  also 
devoted  his  efforts  to  secure  Jackson's  ascendency. 

When  Mr.  Adams  was  informed  that  Mr.  Clay's 
final  and  full  vindication  of  himself  against  the 
aspersions  of  General  Jackson  had  appeared  from  the 
press,  he  said:  "It  is  unnecessary.  Enough  has 
already  been  said  to  put  down  that  infamous  slander, 
which  has  been  more  than  once  publicly  branded  as 
falsehood.  The  conspiracy  will,  however,  probably 
succeed.  When  suspicions  have  been  kindled  into 
popular  delusion,  truth,  reason,  and  justice,  speak  to 
the  ears  of  adders.  The  sacrifice  must  be  consum 
mated.  There  will  then  be  a  reaction  in  public 


174  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

opinion.     It  may  not  be  rapid,  but  it  will   be   cer 
tain.  " 

By  one  of  those  party  arrangements  which  ever 
have  shaped,  and  to  human  view  forever  will  decide, 
the  destinies  of  this  republic,  —  a  coalition  being 
effected  between  the  leading  influences  of  the  slave 
states  and  those  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  — 
Andrew  Jackson  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  both  slave 
holders,  were  respectively  elected  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


PCRSUITS     OF    MR.    ADAMS    IN      RETIREMENT. ELECTED     TO     CONGRESS. 

PARTIES    AND    THEIR    PROCEEDINGS. HIS    COURSE    IN    RESPECT    OF 

THEM. HIS    OWN    ADMINISTRATION    AND     THAT     OF    HIS     SUCCESSOR 

COMPARED.  —  REPORT  ON  MANUFACTURES  AND  THE  BANK  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. REFUSAL  TO  VOTE,  AND  CONSEQUENT  PROCEED 
INGS. SPEECH  AND  REPORT  ON  THE  MODIFICATION  OF  THE  TARIFF 

AND    SOUTH    CAROLINA    NULLIFICATION. 


ON  the  4th  of  March,  1829,  Andrew  Jackson  was 
inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Mr. 
Adams  retired,  as  he  then  thought  forever,  from  public 
life.  His  active,  energetic  spirit  required  neither 
indulgence  nor  rest,  and  he  immediately  directed  his 
attention  to  those  philosophical,  literary,  and  religious 
researches,  in  which  he  took  unceasing  delight.  The 
works  of  Cicero  became  the  object  of  study,  analysis, 
and  criticism.  Commentaries  on  that  master-mind  of 
antiquity  were  among  his  daily  labors.  •  The  transla 
tion  of  the  Psalms  of  David  into  English  verse  was  a 
frequent  exercise  ;  and  his  study  of  the  Scriptures  was 
accompanied  by  critical  remarks,  pursued  in  the  spirit 
of  free  inquiry,  chastened  by  a  solemn  reference  to 
their  origin,  and  influence  on  the  conduct  and  hopes 
of  human  life.  His  favorite  science,  astronomy,  led  tc 
the  frequent  observation  of  the  planets  and  stars  ;  and 

(175) 


176  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

his  attention  was  also  turned  to  agriculture  and  hor 
ticulture*.  He  collected  and  planted  the  seeds  of  forest 
trees,  and  kept  a  record  of  their  development,  and,  in 
the  summer  season,  labored  two  or  three  hours  daily 
in  his  garden.  With  these  pursuits  were  combined 
sketches  preparatory  to  a  full  biography  of  his  father, 
which  he  then  contemplated  as  one  of  his  chief  future 
employments. 

From  the  subjects  to  which  the  labors  of  his  life 
had  been  principally  devoted  his  thoughts  could  not 
be  wholly  withdrawn.  As  early  as  the  27th  of 
April,  1829,  a  citizen  of  Washington  spoke  to  him 
with  great  severity  on  the  condition  of  public  affairs, 
and  of  the  scandals  in  circulation  concerning  them  ; 
stating  that  removals  from  office  were  continuing  with 
great  perseverance  ;  that  the  custom-houses  in  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Portsmouth  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  New  Orleans,  had  been  swept  clear ;  that 
violent  partisans  of  Jackson  were  exclusively  ap 
pointed,  and  that  every  editor  of  a  scurrilous  newspa 
per  had  been  provided  for. 

Again,  in  June  of  the  same  year  Mr.  Adams  wrote  : 
"  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  now  Secretary  of  State.  He  is  the 
manager  by  whom  the  present  administration  has  been 
brought  into  power.  He  has  played  over  again  the 
game  of  Aaron  Burr  in  1800,  with  the  addition  of 
political  inconsistency,  in  transferring  his  allegiance 
from  Crawford  to  Jackson.  He  sold  the  State  of  New 
York  to  them  both.  The  first  bargain  failed  by  the 
result  of  the  choice  of  electors  in  the  Legislature.  The 
second  was  barely  accomplished  by  the  system  of  party 


MEMOIK    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  177 

management  established  in  that  state  ;  and  Van  Buren 
is  now  enjoying  his  reward." 

On  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Mr.  Adams  observed  : 
4 'It  is  the  only  part  of  European  democracy  which 
will  find  no  favor  in  the  United  States.  It  may 
aggravate  the  condition  of  slaves  in  the  South,  but 
the  result  of  the  Missouri  question,  and  the  attitude 
of  parties,  have  silenced  most  of  the  declaim ers  on 
that  subject.  This  state  of  things  is  not  to  continue 
forever.  It  is  possible  that  the  danger  of  the  aboli 
tion  doctrines,  when  brought  home  to  Southern  states 
men,  may  teach  them  the  value  of  the  Union,  as 
the  only  thing  which  can  maintain  their  system  of 
slavery." 

On  the  course  and  feelings  of  Mr.  Jefferson  on  this 
subject,  Mr.  Adams  thus  expressed  himself:  "His 
love  of  liberty  was  sincere  and  ardent,  but  confined  to 
himself,  like  that  of  most  of  his  fellow-slaveholders. 
He  was  above  that  execrable  sophistry  of  the  South 
Carolina  nullifiers,  which  would  make  of  slavery  the 
corner-stone  of  the  temple  of  liberty.  He  saw  the 
gross  inconsistency  between  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  fact  of  negro 
slavery  ;  and  he  could  not,  or  would  not,  prostitute 
the  faculties  of  his  mind  to  the  vindication  of  that 
slavery,  which,  from  his  soul,  he  abhorred.  But  Jef 
ferson  had  not  the  spirit  of  martyrdom.  lie  would 
have  introduced  a  flaming  denunciation  of  slavery  into 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  the  discretion 
of  his  colleagues  struck  it  out.  He  did  insert  a  most 

eloquent  and  impassioned  argument  against  it  in  his 
12 


178  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Notes  on  Virginia  ;  but,  on  that  very  account,  the 
book  was  published  almost  against  his  will.  He  pro 
jected  a  plan  of  a  general  emancipation,  in  his  revision 
of  the  Virginia  laws,  but  finally  presented  a  plan 
leaving  slavery  precisely  where  it  was ;  and,  in  his 
Memoir,  he  leaves  a  posthumous  warning  to  the  plant 
ers  that  they  must,  at  no  distant  day,  emancipate  their 
slaves,  or  that  worse  will  follow ;  but  he  withheld  the 
publication  of  his  prophecy  till  he  should  himself  be 
in  the  grave." 

Mr.  Adams  was  not  long  permitted  to  remain  in 
retirement.  In  October,  1830,  he  was  nominated,  in 
the  newspapers,  to  represent  in  Congress  the  district 
of  Massachusetts  in  which  he  resided.  When  asked 
if  he  would  consent  to  be  a  candidate,  he  replied,  in 
the  spirit  which  had  governed  his  whole  life,  never  to 
seek  and  never  to  decline  public  service:  "It  must 
first  be  seen  whether  the  people  of  the  district  will 
invite  me  to  represent  them.  I  shall  not  ask  their 
votes.  I  wish  them  to  act  their  pleasure."  In  the 
ensuing  November  he  was  elected  Representative  of 
the  twelfth  Congressional  district  of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  3d  of  January,  1831,  Mr.  Adams  thus  re 
marked  on  the  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Georgia 
setting  at  defiance  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  :  "  They  are  published  and  approved  in  the 
Telegraph,  the  administration  newspaper  at  Washing 
ton.  By  extending  the  laws  of  Georgia  over  the 
country  and  people  of  the  Cherokees,  the  constitution, 
laws,  and  treaties,  of  the  United  States,  were  quoad 
hoc  set  aside.  They  were  chaff  before  the  wind.  In 


MEMOIR    OP    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  179 

pursuance  of  these  laws  of  Georgia,  a  Cherokee  Indian 
is  prosecuted  for  the  murder  of  another  Indian,  before 
a  state  court  of  Georgia,  tried  by  a  jury  of  white  men, 
and  sentenced  to  death.  He  applies  to  a  chief  justice 
of  the  Court  of  the  United  States,  who  issues  an 
injunction  to  the  Governor  and  executive  officers  of 
Georgia,  upon  the  appeal  to  the  laws  and  treaties  of 
the  United  States.  The  Governor  of  Georgia  refuses 
obedience  to  the  injunction,  and  the  Legislature  pass 
resolutions  that  they  will  not  appear  to  answer  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  The  consti 
tution,  the  laws,  and  treaties,  of  the  United  States, 
are  prostrate  in  the  State  of  Georgia.  Is  there  any 
remedy  for  this  state  of  things  ?  None  ;  because  the 
State  of  Georgia  is  in  league  with  the  Executive  of 
the  United  States,  who  will  not  take  care  that  the  laws 
be  faithfully  executed.  A  majority  of  both  houses 
of  Congress  sustain  this  neglect  and  violation  of 
duty.  There  is  no  harmony  in  the  government  of 
the  Union.  The  arm  refuses  its  office.  '  The  whole 
head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint/  This  exam 
ple  of  the  State  of  Georgia  will  be  imitated  by  other 
states,  and  with  regard  to  other  national  interests, — 
perhaps  the  tariff,  more  probably  the  public  lands. 
As  the  Executive  and  Legislature  now  fail  to  sustain 
the  Judiciary,  it  is  not  improbable  cases  may  arise  in 
which  the  Judiciary  may  fail  to  sustain  them.  The 
Union  is  in  the  most  imminent  danger  of  dissolution 
from  the  old,  inherent  vice  of  confederacies,  anarchy 
;n  the  members.  To  this  end  one  third  of  the  people 
is  perverted,  one  third  slumbers,  and  the  rest  wring 


180  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

their  hands,  with  unavailing  lamentations,  in  the  fore 
sight  of  evils  they  cannot  avert/' 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1831,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  an 
oration  before  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Quincy, 
in  which  he  controverted  the  doctrine  of  Blackstone, 
the  great  commentator  upon  the  laws  of  England,  who 
maintained  "  that  there  is,  and  must  be,  in  all  forms 
of  government,  however  they  began,  and  by  what 
right  soever  they  subsist,  a  supreme,  irresistible,  abso 
lute,  uncontrolled  authority,  in  which  the  jura  summi 
imperil,  or  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  reside/'  "It  is 
not  true,"  Mr.  Adams  remarks,  "  that  there  must 
reside  in  all  governments  an  absolute,  uncontrolled, 
irresistible,  and  despotic  power  ;  nor  is  such  a  power 
absolutely  essential  to  sovereignty.  The  direct  con 
verse  of  the  proposition  is  true.  Uncontrollable  power 
exists  in  no  government  upon  earth.  The  sternest 
despotisms,  in  every  region  and  every  age  of  the  world, 
are  and  have  been  under  perpetual  control ;  compelled, 
as  Burke  expresses  it,  to  truckle  and  huckster.  Un 
limited  power  belongs  not  to  the  nature  of  man,  and 
rotten  will  be  the  foundation  of  every  government 
leaning  upon  such  a  maxim  for  its  support.  Least  of 
all  can  it  be  predicated  of  any  government  professing 
to  be  founded  upon  an  original  compact.  The  pre 
tence  of  an  absolute,  irresistible,  despotic  power, 
existing  in  every  government  somewhere,  is  incompati 
ble  with  the  first  principle  of  natural  right/' 

This  proposition  Mr.  Adams  proceeds  fully  to  illus 
trate,  and  thus  to  apply  :  "  This  political  sophism 
of  identity  between  sovereign  and  despotic  power 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  181 

has  led,  and  continues  to  lead,  into  many  vagaries, 
some  of  the  statists  of  this  our  happy  but  disputatious 
Union.  It  seizes  upon  the  brain  of  a  heated  politi 
cian,  sometimes  in  one  state,  sometimes  in  another, 
and  its  natural  offspring  is  the  doctrine  of  nullifica 
tion  ;  that  is,  the  sovereign  power  of  any  one  state  of 
the  confederacy  to  nullify  any  act  of  the  whole  twenty- 
four  states  which  the  sovereign  state  shall  please  to 
consider  as  unconstitutional.  Stripped  of  the  sophis 
tical  argumentation  in  which  this  doctrine  has  been 
habited,  its  naked  nature  is  an  effort  to  organize 
insurrection  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States  ;  to 
interpose  the  arm  of  state  sovereignty  between  rebel 
lion  and  the  halter,  and  to  rescue  the  traitor  from  the 
gibbet.  Although  conducted  under  the  auspices  of 
state  sovereignty,  it  would  not  the  less  be  levying  war 
against  the  Union  ;  but,  as  a  state  cannot  be  punished 
for  treason,  nullification  cases  herself  in  the  complete 
steel  of  sovereign  power."  "  The  citizen  of  the  nul 
lifying  state  becomes  a  traitor  to  his  country  by  obe 
dience  to  the  law  of  his  state,  —  a  traitor  to  his  state 
by  obedience  to  the  law  of  his  country.  The  scaffold 
and  the  battle-field  stream  alternately  with  the  blood 
of  their  victims.  The  event  of  a  conflict  in  arms 
between  the  Union  and  one  of  its  members,  whether 
terminating  in  victory  or  defeat,  would  be  but  an 
alternative  of  calamity  to  all." 

Mr.  Adams  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  in  December,  1831,  and  immediately 
announced  to  his  constituents  that  he  should  hold 
himself  bound  in  allegiance  to  no  party,  whether 


182  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

sectional  or  political.  Ten  years  afterwards  he  had 
occasion  to  explain  to  his  fellow-citizens  his  policy 
and  feelings  at  this  period.  "I  thought  this  inde 
pendence  of  party  was  a  duty  imposed  upon  me  by 
my  peculiar  position.  I  had  spent  the  greatest  part 
of  my  life  in  the  service  of  the  whole  nation,  and 
had  been  honored  by  their  highest  trust ;  my  duty  of 
fidelity,  of  affection,  and  of  gratitude,  to  the  whole, 
was  not  merely  inseparable  from,  but  identical  with, 
that  which  was  due  from  me  to  my  own  common 
wealth.  The  internal  conflict  between  slavery  and 
freedom  had  been,  and  still  was,  scarcely  perceptible 
in  the  national  councils.  The  Missouri  compromise 
had  laid  it  asleep,  it  was  hoped,  forever.  The  devel 
opment  of  the  moral  principle  which  pronounced 
slavery  a  crime  of  man  against  his  brother-man  had 
not  yet  reached  the  conscience  of  Christendom.  Eng 
land,  earnestly  and  zealously  occupied  in  rallying  the 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  energies  of  the  civil 
ized  world  against  the  African  slave-trade,  had  scarcely 
yet  discovered  that  it  was  bat  an  instrument,  and  in 
truth  a  mitigation,  of  the  great,  irremissible  wrong  of 
slavery.  Her  final  policy,  the  extinction  of  slavery 
throughout  the  earth,  was  not  yet  disclosed.  The 
Jackson  project  of  dismembering  Mexico  for  the 
acquisition  of  Texas,  already  organized  and  in  full 
operation,  was  yet  profoundly  a  secret.  I  entered 
Congress  without  one  sentiment  of  discrimination 
between  the  interests  of  the  North  and  the  South ;  and 
my  first  act,  as  a  member  of  the  House,  was,  on  pre 
senting  fifteen  petitions  from  Pennsylvania  for  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHX     QUINCY    ADAMS.  183 

abolition  of  slavery  within  the  District  of  Columbia, 
to  declare,  while  moving  their  reference  to  the  com 
mittee  of  the  District,  that  I  was  not  prepared  to 
support  the  measure  myself,  and  that  I  should  not. 
I  was  not  then  a  sectional  partisan,  and  I  never  have 
been."* 

When  Mr.  Adams  was  entering  this  new  field  of 
labor,  Mr.  Clay  asked  him  how  he  felt  at  turning  boy 
again,  and  going  into  the  House  of  Representatives ; 
and  observed  that  he  would  find  his  situation  ex 
tremely  laborious.  Mr.  Adams  replied:  "I  well 
know  this  ;  but  labor  I  shall  not  refuse  so  long  as  my 
hands,  my  eyes,  and  my  brain,  do  not  desert  me." 

To  understand  the  position  in  which  Mr.  Adams 
was  placed,  on  his  taking  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  it  is  important  that  some  of  the 
events  which  had  occurred  during  his  absence  from 
public  life  should  be  briefly  recapitulated.  General 
Jackson  had  been  two  years  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  alliance  which  he  had  entered  into 
with  Mr.  Van  Buren  for  their  mutual  advancement, 
to  which  allusion  has  been  made  in  a  former  chapter, 
had  not  resulted  immediately  as  the  high  contracting 
parties  probably  intended.  An  obstacle  to  the  ad 
vancement  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  the  Vice-Presidency 
presented  itself  which  was  insurmountable.  John  C. 
Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  possessed  an  influence  in 
the  slave  states  which  it  was  important  to  conciliate, 
and  imprudent  to  set  at  defiance.  The  allies  were, 

*  Address  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to  his  Constituents,  at  Braintree,  Septem 
ber  17,  1842,  p.  27. 


184     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

consequently,  compelled  to  accede  to  his  nomination 
as  Vice-President,  and  Van  Buren  was  forced  to  be 
content  with  the  prospect  of  being  appointed  Secretary 
of  State. 

The  elevation  of  Calhoun  to  the  Vice-Presidency, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  could  not  have  been  accept 
able  to  Jackson.  It  appears,  by  the  documents  pub 
lished  by  Calhoun  in  connection  with  his  account  of 
his  controversy  with  Jackson,  that  William  H.  Craw 
ford  had,  as  early  as  December,  1827,  taken  direct 
measures  to  render  the  friendship  of  Calhoun  sus 
pected  by  Jackson.  On  the  14th  of  that  month  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  Alfred  Balch,  at  Nashville,  with  the 
express  purpose  of  its  being  shown  to  Jackson,  con 
taining  the  following  statement :  "  My  opinions  upon 
the  next  presidential  election"  (against  Adams  and 
in  favor  of  Jackson)  "  are  generally  known.  When 
Mr.  Van  Buren  and  Mr.  Cambreling  made  me  a  visit, 
last  April,  I  authorized  them,  upon  every  proper  occa 
sion,  to  make  these  opinions  known.  The  vote  of  the 
State  of  Georgia  will,  as  certainly  as  that  of  Tennessee, 
be  given  to  General  Jackson,  in  opposition  to  Mr. 
Adams.  The  only  difficulty  that  this  state  has  upon 
that  subject  is,  that,  if  Jackson  should  be  elected, 
Calhoun  will  come  into  power.  I  confess  I  am  not 

apprehensive    of  such  a  result.     For   

writes  to  me,  k  Jackson  ought  to  know,  and  if  he  does 
not  he  shall  know,  that,  at  the  Calhoun  caucus  in 
Columbia,  the  term  military  chieftain  was  bandied 
about  even  more  flippantly  than  it  had  been  by  Henry 
Clay,  and  that  the  family  friends  of  Mr.  Calhoun  were 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  185 

most  active  in  giving  it  currency ;  and  I  know,  per 
sonally,  that  Calhoun  favored  Mr.  Adams'  pretensions 
until  Mr.  Clay  declared  for  him.  He  well  knew  that 
Clay  would  not  have  declared  for  Adams  without  it 
was  well  understood  that  he,  Calhoun,  was  to  be  put 
down  if  Adams  could  effect  it.  If  he  was  not  friendly 
to  his  election,  why  did  he  suffer  his  paper  to  be  pur 
chased  up  by  Adams'  printers,  without  making  some 
stipulation  in  favor  of  Jackson  ?  If  you  can  ascertain 
that  Calhoun  will  not  be  benefited  by  Jackson's  elec 
tion,  you  will  do  him  a  service  by  communicating  the 
information  to  me.  Make  what  use  you  please  of  this 
letter,  and  show  it  to  whom  you  please/'* 

That  these  opinions  of  Crawford  concerning  Cal 
houn  were  communicated  to  Van  Buren  and  Cambre- 
ling  when  they  visited  him,  as  he  states,  on  their 
electioneering  tour,  in  April,  1827,  cannot  be  reason 
ably  questioned :  and  that  Crawford's  letter  to  Balch 
was  also  communicated  to  Jackson  can  as  little  be 
doubted.  That  at  this  period  Calhoun' s  want  of 
political  sympathy  with  Jackson  was  publicly  known 
and  talked  about  at  Nashville,  is  apparent  from  Cal 
houn' s  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  in 
his  controversy  with  Jackson,  in  which  he  bitterly 
complains  :  "I  remained  ignorant  and  unsuspicious 
of  these  secret  movements  against  me  till  the  spring 
of  1828,  when  vague  rumors  reached  me  that  some 
attempts  were  making  at  Nashville  to  injure  me/' 

Why  statements  made  by  such  a  high  authority  as 

*  See,  for  Crawford's  letter  and  Calhoun's  address,  JVY/c*'  Weekly  Regis 
ter,  voL  XL.,  p.  12. 


186  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Crawford,  so  well  adapted  to  kindle  the  inflammatory 
^mpcrarnent  of  Jackson,  and  at  once  so  auspicious  to 
the  hopes  of  Van  Buren  and  so  ominous  to  those  of 
Calhoun,  were  not  immediately  made  the  subject  of 
action,  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  Cal 
houn  was  at  that  time  too  strong  in  the  affections  of 
the  South  for  them  then  to  commence  hostilities  ;  for, 
in  that  case  he  would,  as  Crawford  intimated,  have 
"favored  the  pretensions  of  Adams/'  and  possibly 
have  defeated  the  plans  of  the  alliance.  Jackson, 
therefore,  yielded,  and  allowed  Calhoun  to  be  run  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency  on  the  same  ticket 
with  himself,  and  postponed  any  attempt  to  deprive 
him  of  his  chance  of  succession  until  a  more  conve 
nient  opportunity.  To  this  arrangement  Van  Buren 
also  was  compelled  to  submit,  and,  after  Adams  was 
superseded,  and  Jackson  inaugurated  President,  he 
was  appointed  Secretary  of  State.* 

In  April,  1830,  when  the  Legislatures  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  took  incipient  measures  to  nominate 
Jackson  for  a  second  term  of  office,  the  favorable 
moment  arrived  to  bring  his  artillery  to  bear  upon 
Calhoun.  At  this  time  two  letters  of  Crawford  were 
brought  to  the  mind  of  General  Jackson,  —  the  one  to 
Alfred  Balch,  already  referred  to  ;  the  other  to  John 
Forsyth,  dated  the  30th  of  April,  1830,f— in  which 
Crawford  expressly  stated  that  "Mr.  Calhoun  had 

*  Jackson's  cabinet  were,  Martin  Van  Buren,  Secretary  of  State  ;  Samuel 
D.  Ingham,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  John  H.  Eaton,  Secretary  of  War  ; 
John  Branch,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ;  John  M'P.  Berrien,  Attorney-General ; 
William  T.  Barry,  Postmaster-General. 

•f  For  which  see  JVi'/es'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  XL.,  pp.  12,  13. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  187 

made  a  proposition  to  the  cabinet  of  Monroe  for  pun 
ishing  him  for  his  conduct  in  the  Seminole  war/' 
Jackson,  greatly  excited,  immediately,  on  the  12th  of 
May,  1830,  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  de 
claring  his  great  surprise  at  the  information  those 
letters  contained,  and  inquiring  whether  he  had 
moved  or  sustained  any  attempt  seriously  to  affect  him 
in  Monroe's  cabinet  council.  Calhoun  replied,  that 
he  "  could  not  recognize  the  right  of  General  Jackson 
to  call  in  question  his  conduct  in  the  discharge  of  a 
high  official  duty,  and  under  responsibility  to  his  con 
science  and  his  country  only/'  The  anger  of  Jack 
son  was  not  in  the  least  assuaged  by  this  reply,  nor 
by  the  explanations  which  accompanied  it.  A  corres 
pondence  ensued,  which,  with  collateral  and  document 
ary  evidence,  occupied  fifty-two  pages  of  an  octavo 
pamphlet;  resulting  in  Jackson's  declaration  of  his 
poignant  mortification  to  see  in  Calhoun's  letter, 
instead  of  a  negative,  an  admission  of  the  truth  of 
Crawford's  allegations.  An  irreconcilable  alienation 
between  Jackson  and  Calhoun  was  evinced  in  this 
correspondence  ;  a  state  of  feeling  which  for  the  time 
was  concealed  from  the  public,  but  was  well  known 
to  their  respective  partisans,  who  understood  that  at 
the  approaching  election  the  influence  of  the  former 
would  be  thrown  into  the  scale  of  Van  Bur  en.  Jack 
son's  intention  of  standing  for  the  Presidency  a  second 
time  was  kept  a  profound  secret  until  January,  1831. 
Under  the  supposition  that  he  might  decline,  the  par 
tisans  of  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Van  Buren,  engaged  in 
active  measures  to  put  them  respectively  into  the  field. 


188  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

From  the  party  movements  during  this  uncertainty 
it  was  clearly  perceived  that,  if  Jackson  was  not 
again  a  candidate,  a  contest  between  Van  Buren  and 
Calhoun  for  the  Presidency  was  unavoidable.  Cal- 
houn's  chance  of  success  was  preeminent,  for  he  would 
unite  in  his  favor  all  the  votes  and  influence  of  the 
South,  —  Van  Buren  not  having  then  had  an  opportu 
nity  to  evince  his  entire  subserviency  to  the  slave- 
holding  power.  Jackson,  into  whose  heart  Van  Buren 
had  wound  himself,  looked  with  little  complacency  on 
the  probable  success  of  Calhoun.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  he  resolved  to  enter  the  lists  himself  as 
a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and,  by  taking  Van 
Buren  with  him  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  put  him  afc 
once  in  the  best  position  to  become  his  successor. 
Van  Buren  coincided  in  these  views,  and  acquiesced 
in,  if  he  did  not  originate,  this  measure.  He  fore 
saw  that  the  popularity  of  Jackson  would  throw  Cal 
houn  out  of  the  field,  whether  he  was  a  candidate  at 
the  next  ensuing  election  for  the  Presidency  or  Vice- 
Presidency.  The  time  had  now  come  to  put  an  end  to 
the  hopes  of  Calhoun  for  the  attainment  of  either  of 
those  high  stations,  by  making  public  the  animosity  of 
Jackson  ;  but  this  could  not  be  done  without  a  strug 
gle.  Branch,  Ingham,  and  Berrien,  all  members  of 
Jackson's  cabinet,  were  known  friends  to  Calhoun, 
and  far  from  being  well  disposed  to  Van  Buren. 
Under  these  circumstances,  Jackson  resolved  to  dis 
solve  his  cabinet,  in  which  Van  Buren  himself  held  a 
place,  and  form  another,  better  adapted  to  their  united 
views.  As  a  violent  contest  with  the  friends  of  Cal- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  189 

hoim  was  anticipated,  Van  Buren,  if  he  should  con 
tinue  Secretary  of  State,  would  be  considered  respon 
sible  for  all  Jackson's  proceedings  to  frustrate  Cal- 
houn's  aspirations  for  the  Presidency,  which  might 
injuriously  affect  his  popularity  in  the  Southern  States. 
Van  Buren  therefore  retired  upon  a  mission  to  England. 
Such  were  the  general  views  and  policy  of  these 
allied  aspirants  to  the  two  highest  offices  of  state, 
which  public  documents  now  make  apparent,  when,  in 
April,  1831,  say  the  newspapers  of  the  period,  "  an 
explosion  took  place  in  the  cabinet  at  Washington,  the 
announcement  of  which  came  upon  the  public  like  a 
clap  of  thunder  in  a  cloudless  day."  *  On  the  7th  of 
April,  the  Secretary  of  War,  General  Eaton,  resigned, 
without  giving  any  other  reason  than  his  own  inclina 
tion,  and  that  he  deemed  the  moment  favorable,  as 
General  Jackson's  "  course  of  policy  had  been  advan 
tageously  commenced."  On  the  llth  of  April,  Van 
Buren  resigned  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State.  So 
far  as  his  motive  could  be  discerned  through  the  haze 
of  ambiguous  and  diplomatic  language,  it  was  that 
his  name  had  been  connected  with  that  distracting 
topic,  the  question  of  successorship,  which  rendered 
his  continuance  in  the  cabinet  embarrassing,  and  might 
be  injurious  to  the  public  service.  The  two  other 
secretaries,  Ingham  and  Branch,  were  kept  in  igno 
rance  of  these  resignations  until  the  19th  of  April, 
when  Jackson  informed  them  that,  to  command  public 
confidence  and  satisfy  public  opinion,  he  deemed  it 
proper  to  select  a  cabinet  of  entirely  new  materials,! 

*  See  JMes'  Weekly  Regkter,  yol.  XL.,  pp.  129—145.         t  Ibid.,  pp.  152-3. 


190  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

and  therefore  requested  them  to  resign  their  respect 
ive  offices.  They  accordingly  tendered  their  resigna 
tions,  which  were  accepted  by  the  President,  in  a  let 
ter  to  each,  couched  in  language  perfectly  identical, 
in  which  he  admits  that  the  dismissed  officers  had 
faithfully  performed  their  respective  official  duties, 
but  intimates  that  the  want  of  harmony  in  the  cabinet 
"made  its  entire  renovation  requisite/'*  Branch 
and  Ingham  both  denied  any  want  of  harmony  in  the 
cabinet,  and  the  latter  declared  that  "  it  had  never 
been  interrupted  for  a  moment,  nor  been  divided  in  a 
single  instance  by  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  meas 
ures  of  the  government."  f  These  contradictions,  thus 
openly  made,  created  intense  curiosity,  and  public 
clamor  for  a  full  development  of  facts.  Branch,  in  a 
letter  dated  May  31st,  1831,  addressed  to  certain  cit 
izens  of  Bertie  County,  North  Carolina,  declared  that 
"  discord  had  been  introduced  into  the  ranks  of  the 
administration  by  the  intrigues  of  selfish  politicians."  { 
The  Attorney-General,  Mr.  Berrien,  did  not  resign 
until  the  15th  of  June  ensuing,  nor  until  he  also  had 
been  invited  to  do  so 'by  Jackson.  He  then  declared 
that  he  resigned  "  simply  on  account  of  the  Presi 
dent's  will,"  and  that  he  knew  of  no  want  of  har 
mony  in  the  cabinet  which  either  had  or  ought  to  have 
impeded  the  operations  of  the  administration. §  In 
July,  Mr.  Ingham,  on  returning  home,  was  received 
by  a  great  cavalcade  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  was 
called  upon  for  an  explanation  of  £ <  the  extraordinary 

*  AW«'  Register,  vol.  XL.,  p.  201.  f  Ibid.,  p.  220. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  253.  §  Ibid.,  p.  304. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  191 

measure,  the  dissolution  of  the  cabinet,  which  had 
shocked  the  public  mind/'  He  replied,  that  it  was 
exclusively  the  act  of  the  President,  who  alone  could 
perfectly  explain  his  own  motives,  and  he  deemed  it 
improper  for  him  to  anticipate  the  explanation  which 
the  President  must  deem  it  his  duty  to  make.*  As 
Jackson  made  no  explanation,  Mr.  Branch,  after  being 
repeatedly  called  upon  in  the  public  papers,  author 
ized  the  publication  of  a  letter  he  had  addressed  to 
Edmund  B.  Freeman,  dated  the  22d  of  August,  1831,f 
in  which  he  gave  a  full  statement  of  the  overbearing 
language  and  conduct  of  Jackson,  and  unequivocally 
declared  that  the  contemporaneous  resignation  of 
Eaton  and  Van  Buren  was  a  measure  adopted  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  rid  of  the  three  offensive  members 
of  the  cabinet ;  that  "  their  dismission  had  been  stip 
ulated  for,  and  the  reason  was  that  Van  Buren,  hav 
ing  discovered  that  the  three  members  of  the  cabinet 
(afterwards  ejected)  disdained  to  become  tools  to  sub 
serve  his  ambitious  aspirings,  had  determined  to  leave 
them  as  little  power  to  defeat  his  machinations  as  pos 
sible  ;  and  that  he  had  become  latterly  almost  the  sole 
confidant  and  adviser  of  the  President." 

The  details  of  this  controversy  belong  to  general 
history,  and  will  be  found  in  the  documents  of  the 
period.  Enough  has  been  given  to  indicate  the  great 
influence  Van  Buren  had  acquired,  for  his  own  politi 
cal  advancement,  by  an  unscrupulous  subserviency  to 
the  overbearing  violence  of  the  President. 

On  this  subject  Mr.  Adams  observed  :   "  Van  Buren 

*  JV"t7cs'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  XL.,  p.  331.          t  Ibid.,  vol.  xix,  pp.  5,  6. 


192  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

outwits  Calhoun  in  the  favor  of  Jackson.  He  brought 
the  administration  into  power,  and  now  enjoys  the 
reward  of  his  intrigues.  Jackson  rides  rough-shod 
over  the  Senate,  in  relation  to  appointments  ;  but  they 
dare  not  oppose  him/'  It  was  impossible,  in  view  of 
these  scenes  of  discord  and  mutual  crimination,  for 
Mr.  Adams  not  to  feel  self-congratulation  when  he 
recollected  the  uninterrupted  harmony  which,  during 
four  years,  had  prevailed  in  his  own  cabinet.  From 
without  it  had  been  assailed  with  calumny  and  malig 
nant  passions  ;  but  within  was  peace,  quiet,  mutual 
assistance  and  support.  No  jealousies  disturbed  the 
tranquillity  of  their  meetings.  No  ambitious  spirit 
had  shaped  measures  to  purposes  of  his  own  aggran 
dizement.  Though  silent,  he  could  not  fail,  while  con 
templating  the  comparison,  to  realize  the  triumph  his 
tory  was  preparing  for  himself  and  his  administration. 
The  contrast  presented  by  its  principles,  when  com 
pared  with  those  of  his  successor,  must  have  been  also 
a  natural  source  of  intense  self-congratulation.  Not 
withstanding  the  warning  voice  of  Henry  Clay,  a  mil 
itary  chieftain  had  been  placed  in  the  chair  of  state. 
He  entered  it  with  the  spirit  of  a  conqueror,  and  con 
ducted  in  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  camp.  The  gratifica 
tion  of  his  feelings,  and  the  reward  of  his  partisans, 
were  apparently  his  chief  objects.  He  dismissed  from 
office,  without  trial,  without  charge,  and  without  fault, 
faithful  and  able  men.  During  the  whole  period 
of  Mr.  Adams'  administration  not  an  officer  of  the 
government,  from  Maine  to  Louisiana,  was  dismissed 
on  account  of  his  political  opinions.  Many  well 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  193 

known  to  him  as  opposed  to  his  reelection,  and 
actively  employed  in  behalf  of  his  competitor,  were 
permitted  to  hold  their  places,  though  subject  to  his 
power  of  dismission.  Not  one  was  discharged  from 
that  cause.  In  the  early  part  of  his  administration 
appointments  were  promiscuously  made  from  all  the 
parties  in  the  previous  canvass.  This  course  was 
pursued  until  an  opposition  was  organized  which 
denounced  all  appointments  from  its  ranks  as  being 
made  for  party  purposes.  Of  eighty  newspapers  em 
ployed  in  publishing  the  laws  during  the  four  years  of 
his  Presidency,  only  twelve  or  fifteen  were  changed, 
some  for  geographical,  others  for  local  considerations. 
Some  papers  among  the  most  influential  in  the  oppo 
sition,  but  otherwise  conducted  with  decorum,  were 
retained.  Of  the  entire  number  of  changes,  not  more 
than  four  or  five  were  made  9n  account  of  their 
scurrilous  character.  During  the  same  period  not 
more  than  five  members  of  Congress  received  official 
appointments  to  any  office.  Even  these  shocked 
General  Jackson's  patriotism,  from  their  mischievous 
bearing  on  the  purity  of  the  national  legislature,  and 
the  permanency  of  our  republican  institutions.  Being 
then  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  in  opposition  to 
Mr.  Adams,  he  deliberately  declared  to  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Tennessee  his  firm  conviction  that  no  member 
of  Congress  ought  to  be  appointed  to  any  office  except 
a  seat  on  the  bench  ;  and  he  added  that  he  himself 
would  conform  to  that  rule.  Notwithstanding  this 
pledge,  he  appointed  eight  or  ten  members  of  Congress 
to  office  in  the  first  four  weeks  of  his  Presidency.  Mr. 

13 


194  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Clay  publicly  asserted  his  belief  that  within  two  months 
after  Jackson  had  attained  that  high  station  more  mem 
bers  of  Congress  had  offices  conferred  on  them  "  than 
were  appointed  by  any  one  of  his  predecessors  during 
their  whole  period  of  four  or  eight  years."  His  pro 
ceedings  evidenced  that  among  this  favorite  class  no 
office  is  too  high  or  too  low  for  desire  and  acceptance, 
from  the  head  of  a  department  to  the  most  subordinate 
office  under  a  collector.  On  editors  of  newspapers  he 
bestowed  unexampled  patronage.  Fifteen  or  twenty 
of  those  who  had  been  most  active  in  his  favor  during 
the  preceding  canvass,  —  the  most  abusive  of  his 
opponents,  and  the  most  fulsome  in  his  own  praise, — 
were  immediately  rewarded  with  place.  Of  all  at 
tempts,  his  were  the  boldest  and  the  most  success 
ful  ever  made  to  render  the  press  venal,  and  to  cor 
rupt  this  palladium  of  liberty.*  Happily  the  times 
were  not  propitious  to  give  immediate  development  to 
these  principles  of  permanent  power.  But  the  degree 
of  success  of  this  first  attempt  of  one  man  to  consti 
tute  "himself  the  state  "  contains  a  solemn  foreboding 
as  to  the  possible  future  fate  of  our  republic.  For, 
although  at  this  time  the  ambition  of  the  individual 
was  not  fully  gratified,  enougli  was  effected  to  encour 
age  the  reckless  and  aspiring.  The  seeds  of  corrup 
tion  were  thickly  scattered.  In  that  Presidency  the 
doctrine  was  first  promulgated,  "  To  the  victors 

*  The  facts  above  stated  are  chiefly  derived  from  a  speech  of  Henry  Clay, 
delivered  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  on  the  16th  of  May,  1829,  in  which  all  the 
topics  here  touched  are  forcibly  and  eloquently  illustrated.  It  may  be  found 
at  length  in  Niles'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxxvi.,  pp.  399  to  406. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  195 

belong  the  spoils.'9  From  that  day,  subserviency  to  the 
chief  of  the  prevailing  party  became  the  condition  on 
which  station  and  place  were  given  or  holden.  In  his 
hands  was  lodged  the  power  of  reward  and  punish 
ment,  to  be  exercised  ruthlessly  for  party  support 
and  perpetuation  ;  resulting,  in  the  higher  depart 
ments,  in  tame  submission  to  the  will  of  the  chief, 
and,  in  the  lower,  in  the  adoption  of  the  detestable 
maxim  that  all  is  fair  in  politics.  The  consequences 
are  daily  seen  in  the  servility  of  office-holders  and 
office-seekers  ;  in  forced  contributions,  during  pending 
elections,  for  the  continuance  of  the  prevailing  power, 
and  afterwards  in  a  heartless  proscription  of  all  not 
acceptable  to  the  successful  dynasty  ;  in  the  excluding 
every  one  from  office  who  has  not  the  spirit  to  be  a 
slave,  and  filling  the  heart  of  every  true  lover  of  his 
country  with  ominous  conjectures  concerning  the  fate 
of  our  institutions. 

During  the  early  periods  of  Jackson's  administra 
tion,  Mr.  Adams,  though  in  retirement,  was  neither 
unobserving  nor  silent  concerning  its  proceedings.  In 
January,  1830,  in  the  course  of  a  conversation  with  a 
senator  from  Louisiana  on  the  politics  and  the  in 
trigues  then  going  on  at  Washington  in  relation  to 
the  next  presidential  election,  he  said  :  "  There  are 
three  divisions  of  the  administration  party :  one  for 
General  Jackson,  whose  friends  wish  his  reelection ; 
one  for  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  one  for  Calhoun.  Van 
Buren  sees  he  cannot  eight  years  longer  discharge 
the  duties  of  the  Department  of  State  ;  and  that  he 
must  succeed  at  the  end  of  four  years,  or  not  at  all. 


196  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

His  friends  insist  that  Jackson  has  given  a  pledge 
that  he  will  not  serve  another  term.  Calhoun  and 
his  friends  are  equally  impatient,  and  he  is  much  dis 
posed  to  declare  himself  against  the  leading  measures 
of  the  present  administration.  But  if  Mr.  Clay  was 
brought  forward  by  his  friends  as  a  candidate,  it  would 
close  all  the  cracks  of  the  administration  party,  and 
rivet  them  together. " 

In  the  beginning  of  February,  Mr.  Adams  re 
marked :  "  All  the  members  of  Congress  are  full  of 
rumors  concerning  the  volcanic  state  of  the  adminis 
tration.  The  President  has  determined  to  remove 
Branch,  but  was  told  that  if  he  did  the  North  Carolina 
senators  would  join  the  opposition,  and  all  his  nom 
inations  would  be  rejected.  The  administration  is 
split  up  into  a  blue  and  green  faction  upon  a  point 
of  morals  ;  an  explosion  has  been  deferred,  but  is 
expected." 

On  the  26th  of  March,  1830,  he  again  remarked  : 
"There  is  a  controversy  between  the  Telegraph,  Cal 
houn' s  paper  here,  and  the  New  York  Courier,  Van 
Buren's  paper,  upon  the  question  whether  Jackson  is 
or  is  not  a  candidate  for  reelection  as  President, — 
the  Courier  insisting  that  he  is,  and  the  Telegraph 
declaring  that  it  is  premature  to  ask  the  question. 
Mr.  Van  Buren  has  got  the  start  of  Calhoun,  in  the 
merit  of  convincing  General  Jackson  that  the  salva 
tion  of  the  country  depends  on  his  reelection.  This 
establishes  his  ascendency  in  the  cabinet,  and  reduces 
Calhoun  to  the  alternative  of  joining  in  the  shout 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  197 

*  Hurra  for  Jackson ! '  or  of  being  counted  in  oppo 
sition." 

On  the  28th  of  March,  1830,  the  question  being 
still  in  agitation  before  the  public  whether  Jackson, 
if  a  candidate,  would  be  successful,  Mr.  Adams  said : 
"  Jackson  will  be  a  candidate,  and  have  a  Mr  chance 
of  success.  His  personal  popularity,  founded  solely 
on  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  will  carry  him  through 
the  next  election,  as  it  did  through  the  last.  The 
vices  of  his  administration  are  not  such  as  affect  the 
popular  feeling.  He  will  lose  none  of  his  popularity 
unless  he  should  do  something  to  raise  a  blister  upon 
public  sentiment,  and  of  that  there  is  no  prospect.  If 
he  lives,  therefore,  and  nothing  external  should  hap 
pen  to  rouse  new  parties,  he  may  be  reflected  not 
only  twice,  but  thrice." 

In  June,  1830,  he  again  expressed  his  views  on 
the  policy  and  prospects  of  the  administration.  He 
said  it  was  impossible  to  foresee  what  would  be  the 
fluctuations  of  popular  opinion.  Hitherto  there  were 
symptoms  of  changes  of  opinion  among  members  of 
Congress,  but  none  among  the  people.  These  could 
be  indicated  only  by  the  elections.  He  had  great 
doubts  whether  the  majorities  in  the  Legislatures  of 
the  free  states  would  be  changed  by  the  approaching 
elections,  and  was  far  from  certain  that  the  next  Leg 
islature  of  Kentucky  would  nominate  Mr.  Clay  in 
opposition  to  the  reelection  of  General  Jackson.  The 
whole  strength  of  the  present  administration  rested  on 
Jackson's  personal  popularity,  founded  on  his  military 
services.  He  had  surrendered  the  Indians  to  the  states 


198     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

within  the  bounds  of  which  they  are  located.  This 
would  confirm  and  strengthen  his  popularity  in  those 
states,  especially  as  he  had  burdened  the  Union  with 
the  expense  of  removing  and  indemnifying  the  Indians. 
He  had  taken  practical  ground  against  internal  improve 
ments  and  domestic  industry,  which  would  strengthen 
him  in  all  the  Southern  States.  He  had,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  thrown  all  his  weight  into  the 
slaveholding  scale ;  and  that  interest  is  so  compact,  so 
consolidated,  and  so  fervent  in  action,  that  there  is 
every  prospect  it  will  overpower  the  discordant  and 
loosely  constructed  interest  of  the  free  states.  The 
cause  of  internal  improvement  will  sink,  and  that  of 
domestic  industry  will  fall  with  or  after  it.  There  is 
at  present  a  great  probability  that  Jackson's  policy 
will  be  supported  by  a  majority  of  the  people. 

After  a  conversation  with  Oliver  Wolcott,  the  suc 
cessor  of  Alexander  Hamilton  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  under  Washington,  who  had  been  subse 
quently  Governor  of  Connecticut,  Mr.  Adams  re 
marked :  "Mr.  Wolcott  views  the  prospects  of  the 
Union  with  great  sagacity,  and  with  hopes  more 
sanguine  than  mine  He  thinks  the  continuance 
of  the  Union  will  depend  upon  the  heavy  popu 
lation  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that  its  gravitation  will 
preserve  the  Union.  He  holds  the  South  Carolina 
turbulence  too  much  in  contempt.  The  domineer 
ing  spirit  naturally  springs  from  the  institution  of 
slavery  ;  and  when,  as  in  South  Carolina,  the  slaves 
are  more  numerous  than  their  masters,  the  domineer 
ing  spirit  is  wrought  up  to  its  highest  pitch  of  intense- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 


ness.  The  South  Carolinians  are  attempting  to  govern 
the  Ukion  as  they  govern  their  slaves,  and  there  are 
too  many  indications  that,  abetted  as  they  are  by  all 
the  slave  -driving  interest  of  the  Union,  the  free  por 
tion  will  cower  before  them,  and  truckle  to  their  inso 
lence.  This  is  my  apprehension/' 

While  Jackson's  nominations  were  pending  before 
the  Senate,  a  senator  from  New  Hampshire  said  to  Mr. 
Adams  that  he  hoped  the  whole  tribe  of  editors  of 
newspapers  would  be  rejected  ;  for  he  thought  it  the 
most  dangerous  precedent  that  could  be  established, 
and,  if  now  sanctioned  by  the  Senate,  he  despaired  of 
its  being  controlled  hereafter  ;  and  added  that  he  was 
almost  discouraged  concerning  the  permanency  of  our 
institutions.  Mr.  Adams  replied,  that  his  hopes  were 
better,  but  that  undoubtedly  the  giving  offices  to 
editors  of  newspapers  was  of  all  species  of  bribery  the 
most  dangerous. 

From  the  time  Mr.  Adams  took  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives,  in  December,  1831,  till  the 
period  of  his  death,  few  of  his  contemporaries  equalled 
and  none  exceeded  him  in  punctuality  of  attendance. 
He  was  usually  among  the  first  members  in  his  place 
in  the  morning,  and  the  last  to  leave  it.  On  every 
question  of  general  interest  he  bestowed  scrupulous 
attention,  yielding  to  it  the  full  strength  of  his 
mind,  and  his  extensive  knowledge  of  public  affairs. 
A  full  history  of  the  proceedings  of  Congress  during 
this  period  alone  can  do  justice  to  his  devotion  to  the 
public  service.  In  this  memoir  his  views  and  course 
will  no  further  be  recorded  than  as  they  regard  topics 


200          MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS. 

obviously  nearest  his  heart,  and  in  which  his  princi 
ples  and  character  are  developed  with  peculiar  ability 
and  pOAver. 

In  December,  1831,  on  the  distribution  of  the  sev 
eral  parts  of  the  President's  message  to  committees, 
Mr.  Adams  was  appointed  chairman  of  that  on  manu 
factures.  Against  this  position  he  immediately  remon 
strated,  and  solicited  the  Speaker  to  relieve  him  from 
it.  He  stated  that  the  subject  of  manufactures  was 
connected  with  details  not  familiar  to  him  ;  that,  dur 
ing  the  long  period  of  a  life  devoted  to  public  service, 
his  thoughts  had  been  directed  in  a  very  different  line. 
It  was  replied,  that  he  could  not  be  excused  without  a 
vote  of  the  House  ;  that  the  continuance  of  the  Union 
might  depend  on  the  questions  relative  to  the  tariff; 
and  that  it  was  thought  his  influence  would  have  great 
weight  in  reconciling  the  Eastern  States  to  such  mod 
ifications  as  he  might  sanction.  He  therefore  yielded 
all  personal  considerations  to  the  interests  of  his  coun 
try,  and  accepted  the  appointment. 

In  the  ensuing  March,  on  being  appointed  on  a 
committee  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  United 
States  Bank,  Mr.  Adams  requested  of  the  House  to  be 
excused  from  service  on  the  Committee  on  Manufac 
tures,  giving  the  same  reasons  he  had  previously 
urged,  and  others  resulting  from  the  incompatibility 
of  the  two  offices.  An  opposition  was  made  by 
Cambreling,  of  New  York,  Barbour,  of  Virginia, 
and  Drayton,  of  South  Carolina,  in  speeches  which 
were  characterized  by  the  newspapers  of  the  times 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  201 

as  "  most  extraordinary."  *  Cambreling  said  :  "  The 
present  condition  of  the  country  and  of  the  pub 
lic  mind  demanded  the  intelligence,  industry,  and 
patriotism,  for  which  Mr.  Adams  was  distinguished. 
The  authority  of  his  name  was  of  infinite  importance." 
Mr.  Barbour  followed  in  a  like  strain.  "  The  member 
from  Massachusetts,"  said  he,  "  with  whom  I  have 
been  associated  in  the  Committee  on  Manufactures, 
has  not  only  fulfilled  all  his  duties  with  eminent  abil 
ity,  in  the  committee,  but  in  a  spirit  and  temper  that 
demanded  grateful  acknowledgments,  and  excited  the 
highest  admiration."  He  concluded  with  an  appeal  to 
Mr.  Adams,  "  as  a  patriot,  a  statesman,  and  philan 
thropist,  as  well  as  an  American,  feeling  the  full  force 
of  his  duties,  and  touched  by  all  their  incentives  to 
lofty  action,  to  forbear  his  request."  Mr.  Dray  ton 
also,  in  a  voice  of  eulogy,  declared  that,  "Amidst 
all  the  rancor  of  political  parties  with  which  our 
country  has  been  distracted,  and  from  which,  unhap 
pily,  we  are  not  now  exempt,  it  has  always  been 
admitted  that  no  individual  was  more  eminently 
endowed  with  those  intellectual  and  moral  qualities 
which  entitle  their  possessor  to  the  respect  of  the 
community,  and  to  entire  confidence  in  the  purity  of 
his  motives,  than  Mr.  Adams." 

These  politicians  were  the  active  and  influential 
members  of  a  party  which  had  raised  General  Jackson 
to  the  President's  chair.  When  laboring  to  displace 
Mr.  Adams  from  that  high  station,  that  party  had  rep 
resented  him  as  "  neither  a  statesman  nor  a  patriot ; 

*  Wiles'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  XLII.,  pp.  86—88. 


202  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

without  talents  ;  as  a  mere  professor  of  rhetoric,  capa- 
/ie  of  making  a  corrupt  bargain  for  the  sake  of  power, 
and  of  condescending  to  intrigue  for  the  attainment  of 
place  and  office/'  To  hear  the  leaders  of  such  a  party 
now  extolling  him  for  integrity,  diligence,  a^d  intelli 
gence,  upon  whose  continuance  in  office  the  hopes  of 
the  country  and  the  continuance  of  the  Union  might 
depend,  was  a  change  in  opinions  and  language  which 
might  well  be  attributed  to  the  awakening  of  con 
science  to  a  sense  of  justice,  and  a  desire  for  repara 
tion  of  wrong,  were  it  not  that  leaders  of  factions 
have  never  any  other  criterion  of  truth,  or  rule  in  the 
use  of  language,  than  adaptation  to  selfish  and  party 
purposes. 

Equally  uninfluenced  by  adulation  and  undeterred 
by  abuse,  on  the  23d  of  May,  1832,  as  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Manufactures,  by  order  of  a  major 
ity,  Mr.  Adams  reported  a  bill,  which,  in  presenting 
it,  he  declared  was  not  coincident  with  the  views  of 
that  majority,  and  that  for  parts  he  alone  was  responsi 
ble.  After  lauding  the  anticipated  extinction  of  the 
public  debt,  he  proceeded  to  show,  by  a  laborious 
research  into  its  history,  that  such  extinction  had 
always  been  contemplated,  and  that  the  policy  of  the 
government,  from  the  earliest  period  of  its  existence, 
had  concurred  in  the  wisdom  of  this  application  of  the 
revenue.  He  proceeded  to  expose  and  deprecate  that 
Southern  policy,  which  seized  on  this  occasion  "to 
reduce  the  revenues  of  the  Union  to  the  lowest  point 
absolutely  necessary  to  defray  the  ordinary  charges  and 
indispensable  expenditures  of  the  government;  "  a  sys- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  203 

fcein  which,  by  inevitable  consequence  and  by  avowed 
design,  "left  our  shores  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
our  navy  to  perish  by  dry  rot  upon  the  stocks,  our 
manufactures  to  wither  under  the  blast  of  foreign 
competition ;  "  and  he  urged,  in  opposition  to  these 
destructive  doctrines,  the  duty  of  levying  revenue 
enough  for  "  common  defence,"  and  also  to  "protect 
manufactures,"  and  supported  his  argument  by  a  great 
array  of  facts  ;  severely  animadverting  upon  those 
politicians  who  glorified  themselves  on  the  prosperous 
state  of  the  country,  and  yet  labored  to  break  down 
that  "  system  of  protection  for  domestic  manufactures 
by  which  this  prosperity  had  been  chiefly  produced." 
The  duty  of  "  defensive  preparation  and  internal  im 
provements"  he  maintained  to  be  unquestionable, 
obligations  resulting  from  the  language  and  spirit' of 
the  constitution.  The  doctrine  that  the  interests  of  the 
planter  and  the  manufacturer  were  irreconcilable,  and 
that  duties  for  the  protection  of  domestic  industry  oper 
ate  to  the  injury  of  the  Southern  States,  he  analyzed, 
illustrated,  and  showed  to  be  fallacious,  "  striking 
directly  at  the  heart  of  the  Union,  and  leading  inev 
itably  to  its  dissolution  ;  "  a  result  to  which  more  than 
one  distinguished  and  influential  statesman  of  the 
South  had  affirmed  that  "his  mind  was  nade  up." 
The  doctrine  that  the  interest  of  the  South  is  identified 
with  the  foreign  competitor  of  the  Northern  manufac 
turer,  he  denounced  as  in  conflict  with  the  whole  history 
of  our  Revolutionary  War,  and  a  satire  on  our  insti 
tutions.  If  it  should  prove  true  that  these  interests 
were  so  irreconcilable  as  to  cause  a  separation,  t»s  some 


204     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Southern  statesmen  contended,  after  such  separation  the 
same  state  of  irreconcilable  interests  would  continue, 
and  "with  redoubled  aggravation,"  resulting  in  an 
inextinguishable  or  exterminating  war  between  the 
brothers  of  this  severed  continent,  which  nothing  but 
a  foreign  umpire  could  settle  or  adjust,  and  this  not 
according  to  the  interests  of  either  of  the  parties,  but 
his  own.  The  consequences  of  such  a  state  of  things 
he  displayed  with  great  power  and  eloquence,  and 
concluded  with  alluding  "  to  that  great,  comprehen 
sive,  but  peculiar  Southern  interest,  which  is  now 
protected  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  but 
which,  in  case  of  severance  of  the  Union,  must  pro 
duce  consequences  from  which  a  statesman  of  either 
portion  of  it  cannot  but  avert  his  eyes/' 

Cotemporaneously  with  this  report  on  manufactures, 
Mr.  Adams,  as  one  of  the  committee  to  examine  and 
report  on  the  books  and  proceedings  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  submitted  to  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  a  report,  signed  only  by  himself  and  Mr. 
Watmough,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he  declared  his 
dissent  from  the  report  of  the  committee  on  that  sub 
ject.  After  examining  their  proceedings  with  minute 
ness  and  searching  severity,  he  asserted  that  they  were 
without  authority,  and  in  flagrant  violation  of  the  rights 
of  the  bank,  and  of  the  principles  on  which  the  free 
dom  of  this  people  had  been  founded. 

In  February,  1832,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  a  speech 
on  the  ratio  of  representation — on  the  duty  of  making 
the  constituent  body  small,  and  the  representatives 
numerous  ;  contending  that  a  large  representation  and 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  205 

a  small  constituency  was  a  truly  republican  principle, 
and  illustrating  it  from  history,  and  from  its  tendency 
to  give  the  distinguished  men  of  the  different  states 
opportunities  to  become  acquainted  with  each  other. 

In  July  ensuing,  a  vote  censuring  a  member  for 
words  spoken  in  debate  being  on  its  passage  in  the 
House,  Mr.  Adams,  when  the  roll  was  called,  and 
his  name  announced,  rose  with  characteristic  spirit, 
and  delivered  a  paper  to  the  clerk,  which  contained 
the  following  words  :  "  I  ask  to  be  excused  from  vot 
ing  on  the  resolution,  believing  it  to  be  unconstitu 
tional,  inasmuch  as  it  assumes  inferences  of  fact  from 
words  spoken  by  the  member,  without  giving  the 
words  themselves,  and  the  fact  not  being  warranted, 
in  my  judgment,  by  the  words  he  did  use/'  A  major 
ity  of  the  house,  being  disposed  to  put  down,  and,  if 
possible,  disgrace  Mr.  Adams,  refused  to  excuse  him. 
On  his  name  being  called,  he  again  declined  voting, 
and  stated  that  he  did  not  refuse  to  vote  from  any  con 
tumacy  or  disrespect  to  the  house,  but  because  he  had 
a  right  to  decline  from  conscientious  motives,  and 
thnt  he  desired  to  place  his  reasons  for  declining  upon 
the  journals  of  the  house.  A  member  observed  that, 
if  they  put  those  reasons  on  the  journal,  they  would 
spread  on  it  their  own  condemnation  ;  adding  that, 
by  going  out  of  the  house,  Mr.  Adams  might  easily 
have  avoided  voting.  The  latter  replied,  "I  do  not 
choose  to  shrink  from  my  duty  by  such  an  expedient. 
It  is  not  my  right  alone,  but  the  rights  of  all  the  mem 
bers,  and  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  which 
are  concerned  in  this  question,  and  I  cannot  evade 


206      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

it.  I  regret  the  state  of  things,  but  I  must  abide  by 
the  consequences,  whatever  they  may  be."  A  motion 
made  to  reconsider  the  vote  refusing  to  excuse  him 
was  lost  —  yeas  fifty-nine,  nays  seventy-four.  The 
Speaker  then  read  the  rule  by  which  every  member 
is  required  to  vote,  and  stated  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
every  member  to  vote  on  one  side  or  the  other.  The 
question  then  being  repeated,  when  the  clerk  called 
the  name  of  Mr.  Adams,  he  gave  no  response,  and 
remained  in  his  seat.  A  member  then  rose,  said  it 
was  an  unprecedented  case,  and  moved  two  resolu 
tions.  By  the  one,  the  facts  being  first  stated,  the 
course  pursued  by  Mr.  Adams  was  declared  "  a  breach 
of  one  of  the  rules  of  the  house."  By  the  other,  a 
committee  was  to  be  appointed  for  inquiring  and 
reporting  "  what  course  ought  to  be  adopted  in  a  case 
so  novel  and  important."  The  house  then  proceeded 
to  pass  the  original  vote  of  censure  on  the  member, 
without  repeating  the  name  of  Mr.  Adams. 

The  next  day  the  vote  for  a  committee  of  inquiry 
ou  the  subject  caused  a  desultory  and  warm  debate, 
during  which  Mr.  Adams  took  occasion  to  say  that 
the  whole  affair  was  a  subject  of  great  mortification 
to  him.  The  proposed  resolution,  after  naming  him 
personally,  and  affirming  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
a  breach  of  the  rules  of  the  house,  proposed  that 
a  committee  of  inquiry  should  be  raised,  to  con 
sider  what  was  to  be  done  in  a  case  so  novel  and 
important.  On  this  resolution,  which  the  mover 
seemed  to  suppose  would  pass  of  course,  Mr.  Adams 
said,  that  he  trusted  opportunity  would  be  given 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  207 

him  to  show  the  reasons  which  had  prevented  him  from 
voting.  Mr.  Everett,  of  Massachusetts,  then  remon 
strated  with  the  majority  of  the  house  for  attempt 
ing  thus  to  censure  a  man,  such  as  they  knew  Mr. 
Adams  to  be,  than  whom  he  was  confident  the  whole 
house  would  bear  him  witness  that  there  was  not  an 
individual  on  that  floor  more  regular,  more  assiduous, 
or  more  laborious,  in  the  discharge  of  his  public  duty. 
A  motion  was  then  made  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the 
table,  which  prevailed  —  yeas  eighty-nine,  nays  sixty- 
three. 

Thus  ended  a  debate  which  severely  tested  the  firm 
ness  of  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Adams.  Neither  seduced  by 
the  number  nor  quailing  under  the  threats  and  vio 
lence  of  his  assailants,  he  maintained  the  rights  of  his 
public  station,  and  with  silent  dignity  set  at  defiance 
their  overbearing  attempts  to  terrify,  until  they  aban 
doned  their  purpose  in  despair,  awed  by  the  majestic 
power  of  principle. 

In  December,  1832,  when  the  South  Carolina  state 
convention  was  opposing  the  revenue  laws  with  great 
violence,  accompanied  with  threats  of  disunion,  Pres 
ident  Jackson,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  recom 
mended  a  reduction  of  the  revenue,  and  a  qualified 
abandonment  of  the  system  of  protection  ;  and  also 
that  the  public  lands  be  no  longer  regarded  as  a  source 
of  revenue,  and  that  they  be  sold  to  actual  settlers  at 
a  price  merely  sufficient  to  reimburse  actual  expenses 
and  the  costs  arising  under  Indian  compacts.  "  In 
this  message,'*  said  Mr.  Adams,  "Jackson  has  cast 
away  all  the  neutrality  he  heretofore  maintained  upon 


208  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  conflicting  opinions  and  interests  of  the  different 
sections  of  the  country,  and  surrenders  the  whole 
Union  to  the  milliners  of  the  South  and  the  land 
speculators  of  the  West.  This  I  predicted  nearly  two 
years  since,  in  a  letter  to  Peter  B.  Porter/' 

In  January,  1833,  with  regard  to  a  member  friendly 
to  modifying  the  tariff  according  to  the  Southern  pol 
icy,  and  who  professed  himself  a  radical,  Mr.  Adams 
remarked  :  "  He  has  all  the  contracted  prejudices  of 
that  political  sect ;  his  whole  system  of  government 
is  comprised  in  the  maxim  of  leaving  money  in  the 
pockets  of  the  people.  This  is  always  the  high  road 
to  popularity,  and  it  is  always  travelled  by  those  who 
have  not  resolution,  intelligence,  and  energy,  to  at 
tempt  the  exploration  of  any  other/' 

On  January  16th,  1833,  President  Jackson  com 
municated,  in  a  message,  the  ordinance  of  the  con 
vention  of  South  Carolina  nullifying  the  acts  of 
Congress  laying  duties  on  the  importation  of  for 
eign  commodities,  with  the  counteracting  measures  he 
proposed  to  pursue.  On  the  4th  of  February,  on  a 
bill  for  a  modification  of  the  tariff,  Mr.  Adams  moved 
to  strike  out  the  enacting  clause,  thereby  destroying 
the  bill.  In  a  speech  characterized  by  the  fearless 
spirit  by  which  he  was  actuated,  he  declared  his  opin 
ion  that  neither  the  bill  then  in  discussion  nor  any 
other  on  the  subject  of  the  tariff  ought  to  pass,  until 
it  was  "known  whether  there  was  any  measure  by 
which  a  state  could  defeat  the  laws  of  the  Union/' 
The  ordinance  of  South  Carolina  had  been  called  a 
"pacific  measure."  It  was  just  as  much  so  as 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  209 

placing  a  pistol  at  the  breast  of  a  traveller  and 
demanding  his  money  was  pacific.  Until  that  weapon 
was  removed  there  ought  to  be  no  modification  of  the 
tariff.  Mr.  Adams  then  entered  at  large  into  the 
duty  of  government  to  protect  all  the  great  interests 
of  the  citizens.  But  protection  might  be  extended  in 
different  forms  to  different  interests.  The  complaint 
was,  that  government  took  money  out  of  the  pockets 
of  one  portion  of  the  community,  to  give  it  to  another. 
In  extending  protection  this  must  always  be  more  or 
less  the  case.  But,  then,  while  the  rights  of  one  party 
were  protected  in  this  way,  the  rights  of  the  other 
party  were  protected  equally  in  another  way.  This  he 
proceeded  to  illustrate.  In  the  southern  and  south 
western  parts  of  this  Union  there  existed  a  certain 
interest,  which  he  need  not  more  particularly  desig 
nate,  which  enjoyed,  under  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States,  an  especial  protection  peculiar  to 
itself.  It  was  first  protected  by  representation.  There 
were  on  that  floor  upwards  of  twenty  members  who 
represented  what  in  other  states  had  no  representation 
at  all.  It  was  not  three  days  since  a  gentleman  from 
Georgia  said  that  the  species  of  property  now  alluded 
to  was  "the  machinery  of  the  South."  Now,  that 
machinery  had  twenty  odd  representatives  in  that 
hall ;  representatives  elected,  not  by  that  machinery, 
but  by  those  who  owned  it.  Was  there  such  repre 
sentation  in  any  other  portion  of  the  Union?  That 
machinery  had  ever  been  to  the  South,  in  fact,  the 
ruling  power  of  this  government.  Was  this  not  pro 
tection  ?  This  very  protection  had  taken  millions  and 
11 


210     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

millions  of  money  from  the  free  laboring  population  of 
this  country,  and  put  it  into  the  pockets  of  the  owners 
of  Southern  machinery.  He  did  not  complain  of  this. 
He  did  not  say  that  it  was  not  all  right.  What  he 
said  was,  that  the  South  possessed  a  great  interest 
protected  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 
He  was  for  adhering  to  the  bargain  ;  but  he  did 
not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  he  would 
agree  to  it  if  the  bargain  was  now  to  be  made  over 
again. 

This  interest  was  protected  by  another  provision 
in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  which 
"no  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state, 
under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall, 
in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be 
discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  bat  shall  be 
delivered  up,  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  ser 
vice  or  labor  may  be  due."  What  was  this  but  pro 
tection  to  this  machinery  of  the  South  ?  And  let  it 
be  observed  that  a  provision  like  this  ran  counter  to 
all  the  tenor  of  legislation  in  the  free  states.  It  was 
contrary  to  all  the  notions  and  feelings  of  the  people 
of  the  North  to  deliver  a  man  up  to  any  foreign  author 
ity,  unless  he  had  been  guilty  of  some  crime  ;  and, 
but  for  such  a  clause  in  the  compact,  a  Southern  gen 
tleman,  who  had  lost  an  article  of  his  machinery, 
would  never  recover  him  back  from  the  free  states. 

The  constitution  contained  another  clause  guaran 
teeing  protection  to  the  same  interest.  It  guaranteed 
to  every  state  in  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  gov 
ernment,  protection  against  invasion,  and,  on  the  appli- 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  211 

cation  of  the  Legislature  or  Executive  of  any  state, 
furnished  them  with  protection  against  domestic  vio 
lence.  Now,  everybody  knew  that  where  this  ma 
chinery  existed  the  state  was  more  liable  to  domestic 
violence  than  elsewhere,  because  that  machinery  some 
times  exerted  a  self-moving  power.  The  call  for  this 
protection  had  very  recently  been  made,  and  it  had 
been  answered,  and  the  power  of  tne  Union  had  been 
exerted  to  insure  the  owners  of  this  machinery  from 
domestic  violence. 

On  the  28th  of  the  ensuing  February,  Mr.  Adams, 
on  the  part  of  the  minority  of  the  Committee  on 
Manufactures,  made  a  report,  signed  by  himself  and 
Lewis  Condit,  of  New  Jersey,  which  was  read  and 
ordered  to  be  printed  by  the  House.  In  this  report 
he  took  occasion  to  express  his  dissent  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  message,  which  he  asserted  to  be 
that  in  all  countries  generally,  and  especially  in  our 
own,  the  strongest  and  best  part  of  our  population 
—  the  basis  of  society,  and  the  friends  preeminently 
of  freedom  —  are  the  "wealthy  landholders."  This 
he  controverted  with  a  spirit  at  once  suggestive  and 
sarcastic,  as  new,  incorrect,  and  incompatible  with  the 
foundation  of  our  political  institutions.  He  maintained 
that  this  assertion  was  not  true  even  in  that  part  of  the 
LTnion  where  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  are  slaves  ;  for, 
although  there  the  landholders  possess  a  large  portion 
of  the  wealth  of  the  community,  they  were  far  from 
constituting  an  equal  proportion  of  its  strength.  Nor 
was  it  true  in  that  portion  of  the  Union  where  the  culti 
vators  of  the  soil  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their 


212  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

brow,  that  they  were  the  best  part  of  society.  They 
were  as  good  as,  but  no  better  than,  the  other  classes 
of  the  community.  The  doctrine  is  in  opposition  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  government  of 
the  Union,  which  are  founded  on  a  very  different  prin 
ciple —  the  principle  that  all  men  are  born  equal, 
and  with  equal  rights.  It  cannot  be  assumed  as  a 
foundation  of  national  policy,  and  is  of  a  most  alarm 
ing  and  dangerous  tendency,  threatening  the  peace  and 
directly  tending  to  "  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  by 
a  complicated  civil  and  servile  war/'  He  traced  its 
consequences,  present  and  future,  in  the  proposition 
to  give  away  the  public  lands,  thereby  withdrawing 
all  aid  from  this  source  to  objects  of  internal  improve 
ment  ;  and  in  the  destiny  to  which  it  consigns  our 
manufacturing  interests,  and  those  of  the  handicrafts 
men  and  the  mechanics  of  our  populous  cities  and 
flourishing  towns,  for  the  benefit  of  these  wealthy  land 
holders. 

The  insincerity  of  the  message  and  the  danger  of 
its  doctrines  he  elucidates  with  scrutinizing  severity, 
exposing  its  fallacies,  and  showing  that,  by  its  recom 
mendations,  "  a  nation,  consisting  of  ten  millions  of 
freemen,  must  be  crippled  in  the  exercise  of  their 
associated  power,  unmanned  of  all  the  energies  appli 
cable  to  the  improvement  of  their  own  condition,  by 
the  doubts,  scruples,  or  fanciful  discontents,  of  a  por 
tion  among  themselves  less  in  number  than  double 
the  number  in  the  single  city  of  New  York." 

Its  doctrine,  which  divides  the  people  into  the  best 
and  worst  part  of  the  population,  is  here  denounced 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  213 

as  "  the  never-failing  source  of  tyranny  and  oppres 
sion,  of  civil  strife,  the  shedding  of  brothers'  blood, 
and  the  total  extinction  of  freedom." 

This  report  earnestly  entreats  the  general  govern 
ment  not  to  abdicate,  by  non  user,  the  power  vested 
in  them  of  appropriating  public  money  to  great  na 
tional  objects  of  internal  improvements,  and  declares 
the  final  result  of  the  doctrine  of  abdicating  powers 
arbitrarily  designated  as  doubtful  is  but  the  degrada 
tion  of  the  nation,  the  reducing  itself  to  impotence,  by 
chaining  its  own  hands,  fettering  its  own  feet,  and 
thus  disabling  itself  from  bettering  its  own  condition. 
The  impotence  resulting  from  the  inability  to  employ 
its  own  faculties  for  its  own  improvement,  is  the  prin 
ciple  upon  which  the  roving  Tartar  denies  himself  a 
permanent  habitation,  because  to  him  the  wandering 
shepherd  is  the  best  part  of  the  population  ;  upon 
which  the  American  savage  refuse's  to  till  the  ground, 
because  to  him  the  hunter  of  the  woods  is  the  best 
part  of  the  population.  "Imperfect  civilization,  in 
all  stages  of  human  society,  shackles  itself  with  fanat 
ical  prejudices  of  exclusive  favor  to  its  own  occupa 
tions;  as  the  owner  of  a  plantation  with  a  hundred 
•slaves  believes  the  summit  of  human  virtue  to  be 
attained  only  by  independent  farmers,  cultivators  of 
the  soil/' 

Mr.  Adams  avers  that  the  spirit  of  these  recom 
mendations  indicates  "a  proposed  revolution  in  the 
government  of  the  Union,  the  avowed  purpose  of 
which  is  to  reduce  the  general  government  to  a  simple 
machine.  Simplicity,"  he  adds,  "is  the  essential 


214  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

characteristic  in  the  condition  of  slavery.  It  is  by  the 
complication  of  the  government  alone  that  the  freedom 
of  mankind  can  be  assured.  If  the  people  of  these 
United  States  enjoy  a  greater  share  of  liberty  than 
any  other  nation  upon  earth,  it  is  because,  of  all  the 
governments  upon  earth,  theirs  is  the  most  compli 
cated."  The  simplicity  which  the  message  recom 
mends  is  "an  abdication  of  the  power  to  do  good  ; 
a  divestment  of  all  power  in  this  confederate  people 
to  improve  their  own  condition." 

The  recommendation  of  the  message,  that  the  public 
lands  shall  cease  as  soon  as  practicable  to  be  a  source 
of  public  revenue,  —  that  they  shall  be  sold  at  a 
reduced  price  to  actual  settlers,  and  the  future  dispo 
sition  of  them  be  surrendered  to  the  states  in  which 
they  lie,  —  Mr.  Adams  condemns  as  the  giving  away 
of  the  national  domain,  the  property  of  the  whole 
people,  to  individual  adventurers ;  and  as  taking 
away  the  property  of  one  portion  of  the  citizens,  and 
giving  it  to  another,  the  plundered  portion  of  the  com 
munity  being  insultingly  told  that  those  on  whoni  their 
lands  are  lavished  are  the  best  part  of  the  population. 
Neither  this,  nor  the  surrender  of  them  to  the  states 
in  which  they  lie,  can  be  done  without  prejudicing  the 
claims  of  the  United  States,  and  of  every  particular 
state  within  which  there  are  no  public  lands,  and 
trampling  under  foot  solemn  engagements  entered  into 
before  the  adoption  of  the  constitution.  He  reprobates 
thus  giving  away  lands  which  were  purchased  by  the 
blood  and  treasure  of  our  revolutionary  fathers  and 
ourselves,  which,  if  duly  managed,  might  prove  au 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  215 

inexhaustible  fund  for  centuries  to  come.  He  main 
tains  that  the  policy  indicated  by  this  message  regards 
the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  "  as  a  vic 
tim  to  be  sacrificed."  This  view  leads  him  into  an 
illustrative  and  powerful  argument  on  the  duty  of 
protection  to  domestic  industry,  in  which  are  set  forth 
its  nature,  limitations,  and  impressive  obligations. 

In  this  report  the  absurd  doctrines  of  nullification 
and  secession  are  canvassed,  and  it  is  shown  that 
they  never  can  be  carried  out  in  practice  but  by  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union.  The  encouragement  given 
by  the  policy  of  the  administration  to  the  unjust  claims 
and  groundless  pretensions  of  South  Carolina  is  ex 
posed.  The  assumed  irreconcilableness  of  the  inter 
ests  of  the  great  masses  of  population  which  geograph 
ically  divide  the  Union,  of  which  one  part  is  entirely 
free,  and  the  other  consists  of  masters  and  slaves, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  those  doctrines,  is  denied, 
and  the  question  declared  to  be  only  capable  of  being 
determined  by  experiment  under  the  compact  formed 
by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  nature 
of  that  compact  is  analyzed,  as  well  as  the  effect 
of  that  representation  of  property  which  it  grants  to 
the  slaveholding  states,  and  which  has  secured  to 
them  "  the  entire  control  of  the  national  policy, 
and,  almost  without  exception,  the  possession  of  the 
highest  executive  office  of  the  Union."  The  causes 
and  modes  of  operation  by  which  this  has  been 
attained  Mr.  Adams  illustrates  to  this  effect :  The 
Northern  and  wholly  free  states  conceded  that,  while 
in  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature  they  them- 


216  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

selves  should  have  a  representation  proportioned  only 
to  their  numbers,  the  slaveholders  of  the  South 
should,  in  addition  to  their  proportional  numbers, 
have  a  representation  for  three  fifths  of  their  living 
property  —  their  machinery;  while  the  citizens  of 
the  free  states  have  no  addition  to  their  number 
of  representatives  on  account  of  their  property  ;  nor 
have  their  looms  and  manufactories,  or  their  owners 
in  their  behalf,  a  single  representative.  The  conse 
quent  disproportion  of  numbers  of  the  slaveholding 
representation  in  the  House  of  Representatives  has 
secured  the  absolute  control  of  the  general  policy  of 
the  government,  and  especially  of  the  fiscal  system, 
the  revenues  and  expenditures  of  the  nation.  Thus, 
while  the  free  states  are  represented  only  according  to 
their  numbers,  the  slaveholders  are  represented  also 
for  their  property.  The  equivalent  for  this  privilege 
provided  by  the  constitution  is  that  the  slaveholders 
shall  bear  a  heavier  burden  of  all  direct  taxation. 
But,  by  the  ascendency  which  their  excess  of  repre 
sentation  gives  them  in  the  enactment  of  laws,  they 
have  invariably  in  time  of  peace  excluded  all  direct 
taxation,  and  thereby  enjoyed  their  excess  of  repre 
sentation  without  any  equivalent  whatever.  This  is, 
in  substance,  an  evasion  of  the  bilateral  provision  in 
the  constitution.  It  gives  an  operation  entirely  one 
sided.  It  is  a  privilege  of  the  Southern  and  slave- 
holding  section  of  the  Union,  without  any  equivalent 
whatever  to  the  Northern  and  North-western  freemen. 
Always  united  in  the  purpose  of  regulating  the  aifnirs 
of  the  whole  Union  by  the  standard  of  the  slavehold- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY     ADAMS. 


ing  interest,  the  disproportionate  numbers  of  this 
section  in  the  electoral  colleges  have  enabled  them, 
in  ten  out  of  twelve  quadriennial  elections,  to  con 
fer  the  chief  magistracy  on  one  of  their  own  citi 
zens.  Their  suffrages  at  every  election  have  been 
almost  exclusively  confined  to  a  candidate  of  their 
own  caste.  Availing  themselves  of  the  divisions 
which,  from  the  nature  of  man,  always  prevail  in 
communities  entirely  free,  they  have  sought  and  found 
out  auxiliaries  in  other  quarters  of  the  Union,  by  asso 
ciating  the  passions  of  parties  and  the  ambition  of 
individuals  with  their  own  purposes  to  establish  and 
maintain  throughout  the  confederated  nation  the  slave 
holders'  policy.  The  office  of  Vice-President  —  a 
station  of  high  dignity,  but  of  little  other  than  con 
tingent  power  —  has  been  usually,  by  their  indulgence, 
conceded  to  a  citizen  of  the  other  section  ;  but  even 
this  political  courtesy  was  superseded  at  the  election 
before  the  last  (1829),  and  both  the  offices  of  Presi 
dent  and  Yice-President  of  the  United  States  were, 
by  the  preponderancy  of  slaveholding  votes,  bestowed 
upon  citizens  of  two  adjoining  slaveholding  states. 
"  At  this  moment  (1833)  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  the  President  of  the  Senate,  the  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States,  are  all  citizens  of  this  favored 
portion  of  this  united  republic.  " 

Mr.  Adams,  regarding  "  the  ground  assumed  by  the 
South  Carolina  convention  for  usurping  the  sovereign 
and  limitless  power  of  the  people  of  that  state  to 
dictate  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and  prostrate  the  leg- 


218  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

>lative,  executive,  and  judicial  authority  of  the  United 
.cites,  as  destitute  of  foundation  as  the  forms  and 
substance  of  their  proceedings  are  arrogant,  overbear 
ing,  tyrannical,  and  oppressive,"  declared  his  belief 
"that  one  particle  of  compromise  with  that  usurped 
power,  or  of  concession  to  its  pretensions,  would  be  a 
heavy  calamity  to  the  people  of  the  whole  Union, 
and  to  none  more  than  to  the  people  of  South  Caro 
lina  themselves ;  that  such  concession  would  be  a 
dereliction  by  Congress  of  their  highest  duties  to 
their  country,  and  directly  lead  to  the  final  and  irre 
trievable  dissolution  of  the  Union." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

INFLUENCE  OF  MILITARY  SUCCESS. POLICY  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION. 

—  MR.  ADAMS'  SPEECH  ON  THE  REMOVAL  OF  THE  DEPOSITS  FROM 
THE  BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. HIS  OPINIONS  ON  FREE 
MASONRY  AND  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETIES. EULOGY  ON  WILLIAM  WIRT, 

ORATION     ON    THE     LIFE    AND    CHARACTER     OF     LAFAYETTE.  —  HI? 

COURSE     ON     ABOLITION     PETITIONS ON     INTERFERENCE     WITH     THE 

'     INSTITUTION    OF    SLAVERY  —  ON    THE    POLICY    RELATIVE    TO    THE  PUB 
LIC    LANDS. SPEECH    ON   DISTRIBUTING  RATIONS   TO  FUGITIVES  FROM 

INDIAN    HOSTILITIES ON    WAR    WITH    MEXICO. EULOGY    ON    JAMES 

MADISON. HIS    COURSE    ON    A    PETITION    PURPORTING    TO    BE     FROM 

SLAVES. FIRST    REPORT    ON    JAMES    SMITHSON'S    BEQUEST. 

ON  the  4th  of  March,  1833,  Andrew  Jackson  was 
inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States  a  second 
time.  Of  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  votes,  the 
whole  number  cast  by  the  electors,  he  had  received  two 
hundred  and  nineteen,  Henry  Clay  being  the  chief 
opposing  candidate.  Martin  Van  Buren,  having  been 
elected  Vice- President  by  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine 
votes,  was  inaugurated  on  the  same  day.  The  coali 
tion  formed  in  1827  by  Jackson  with  Van  Buren  had 
thus  fulfilled  its  purpose.  Jackson's  triumph  was 
complete  ;  he  had  superseded  Adams,  defeated  Clay, 
crushed  Calhoun,  and  placed  Van  Buren  in  the  most 
auspicious  position  to  be  his  successor  in  the  Presi 
dent's  chair. 

The  infatuating  influence  of  military  success  over 

(219) 


220  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  human  mind,  and  the  readiness  with  which  intel 
ligent  and  well-disposed  men,  living  under  a  constitu 
tion  of  limited  powers,  while  dazzled  by  its  splendor, 
endure  and  encourage  acts  of  despotic  power,  is  at 
once  instructive  and  suggestive.  Violations  of  consti 
tutional  duty,  known  and  voluntarily  acquiesced  in  by 
a  whole  people,  subservient  to  the  will  of  a  popular 
chieftain,  may,  and  probably  will,  in  time,  change 
their  constitution,  and  destroy  their  liberties. 

When  Mr.  Adams  said  that  "Jackson  rode  rough 
shod  over  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,"  he 
only  characterized  the  spirit  by  which  he  controlled 
every  branch  and  department  of  the  government.  In 
every  movement  Jackson  had  displayed  an  arbitrary 
will,  determined  on  success,  regardless  of  the  means, 
and  had  applied  without  reserve  the  corrupting 
temptation  of  office  to  members  of  Congress.  He  had 
rewarded  subserviency  by  appointments,  and  pun 
ished  the  want  of  it  by  removal ;  had  insolently 
called  Calhoun  to  account  for  his  official  language  in 
the  cabinet  of  Monroe,  and  dismissed  three  members 
of  his  own,  acknowledged  to  have  been  unexception 
able  in  the  discharge  of  their  official  duties,  because 
they  would  not  submit  to  regulate  the  social  inter 
course  of  their  families  by  his  dictation.  These  and 
many  other  instances  of  his  overbearing  character  in 
civil  affairs  had  become  subjects  of  severe  public  ani 
madversion,  without  apparently  shaking  the  submis 
sive  confidence  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
Their  votes  on  his  second  election  indicated  an  un 
equivocal  increase  of  popular  favor ;  the  admirer  of 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  221 

arbitrary  power  exulted ;  the  lover  of  constitutional 
liberty  mourned.  The  friends  of  despotism  in  the  Old 
World,  ignorant  of  the  real  stamina  of  his  popularity, 
regarded  it  as  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  all- 
powerful  influence  of  military  achievement  in  the 
New.  But  the  infatuation  which  had  been  the  excit 
ing  cause  of  General  Jackson's  first  election  to  the 
Presidency  would  soon  have  evaporated  under  tho 
multiplied  evidences  of  an  ill-regulated  will,  had  it 
not  been  encouraged  and  supported  by  a  local  inter 
est  which  predominated  in  the  councils  of  the  nation. 
With  no  desire  to  establish  arbitrary  power  in  the 
person  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Union,  the  slave 
holders  of  the  South  instinctively  perceived  the  iden 
tity  of  Jackson's  interests  with  their  own,  and  gave 
zeal  and  intensity  to  his  support.  The  acquisition  of 
the  province  of  Texas,  and  its  introduction  into  the 
Union  as  a  slave  state,  with  the  prospective  design 
of  forming  out  of  its  territories  four  or  five  slave 
states,  was  a  project  in  which  they  knew  Jackson's 
heart  was  deeply  engaged,  and  for  the  advancement 
of  which  he  had  peculiar  qualifications. 

Such  was  the  true  basis  of  that  extrordinary  show 
of  popularity  which  Jackson's  second  election  as  Pres 
ident  indicated.  Accordingly,  his  first  measures  were 
directed  to  the  acquisition  of  Texas.  These,  as  Mr. 
Adams  said  at  the  time,  "  were  kept  profoundly 
secret,"  but  at  this  day  they  are  clear  and  evident. 
The  Florida  treaty  was  accepted  with  approbation 
and  joy  by  the  government  and  people  of  the  United 
States,  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe.  But 


222     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

the  extension  of  its  boundaries  to  the  Colorado,  which 
had  been  hoped  for  during  the  negotiation  of  that 
treaty  between  Mr.  Adams  and  Onis,  was  not  attained. 
Afterwards,  during  the  Presidency  of  Mr.  Adams, 
when  every  engine  in  the  South  and  West  was  set 
at  work  to  depreciate  his  character,  and  destroy  his 
popularity,  John  Floyd,  of  Virginia,  in  an  address 
to  his  constituents,  attributed  the  relinquishment  of 
our  claim  to  Texas  to  him,  and  said  he  had  thus 
deprived  the  South  of  acquiring  two  or  more  slave 
states.  The  same  charge  was  brought  against  him  by 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  who  afterwards,  when 
apprized  of  the  facts,  openly  acknowledged,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  that  it  was  unjust,  and 
an  error.  The  calumny  had  the  effect  for  which  it 
was  fabricated  ;  for  Mr.  Adams,  out  of  respect  for 
those  through  whose  constitutional  influence  he  had 
abandoned  that  claim,  disdained  to  defend  himself  by 
publishing  the  truth. 

The  facts  were,  that  slavery  not  being  then  per 
mitted  in  Mexico,  and  the  project  of  introducing  it,  by 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  not  being  yet  developed,  Mr. 
Adorns  deemed  the  extension  of  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Colorado  so  important,  that  when 
Onis  absolutely  refused  to  accede,  he  declined  further 
negotiation,  declaring  that  he  would  not  renew  it  on 
any  other  ground.  He  did  not  yield  until  those 
deeply  interested  in  obtaining  Florida  had,  by  their 
urgency,  persuaded  him  to  treat  on  the  condition  of 
not  including  Texas.  Although  desirous,  from  gen 
eral  considerations  of  national  interest  and  policy,  to 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  223 

obtain  that  province,  it  was  well  known  that  he  would 
not  engage  in  any  conspiracy  to  wrest  it  from  Mex 
ico.  His  character  and  firmness  in  that  respect  less 
ened  his  popularity  in  the  Southern  States,  and  ex 
cited  an  inordinate  zeal  for  Jackson. 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Poinsett,  of  South  Carolina,  min 
ister  of  the  United  States  in  Mexico,  immediately  after 
the  inauguration  of  President  Jackson,  in  1829,  being 
apprized  of  his  views  and  policy,  took  measures  to 
uarry  them  into  effect.  Under  pretence  of  negoti 
ating  for  the  purchase  of  Texas,  he  remained  in  Mex 
ico,  and  so  mingled  with  the  parties  which  at  the  time 
distracted  that  republic  as  to  become  obnoxious  to  its 
government.  The  Legislature  passed  a  vote  to  expel 
him  from  their  territories,  and  issued  a  remonstrance 
intimating  apprehensions  of  his  assassination  if  he 
continued  there  ;  charging  him  expressly  with  being 
concerned  in  establishing  "  some  of  those  secret  socie 
ties  which  will  figure  in  the  history  of  the  misfortunes 
of  Mexico/'  It  might  have  been  expected  that  a  for 
eign  minister  would  have  repelled  such  an  accusation 
with  indignation.  Poinsett,  on  the  contrary,  in  a 
letter*  addressed  to  the  public,  admitted  that  he  had 
been  instrumental  in  establishing  Jive  such  secret  soci 
eties,  but  asserted  that  they  were  only  lodges  of  Free 
masons,  —  merely  philanthropic  institutions,  which 
had  nothing  to  do  with  politics.  For  the  truth  of 
these  assertions  he  appealed  to  his  own  personal  char 
acter,  and  to  the  character  of  the  members  of  the 
secret  societies,  who,  he  declared,  had  been  his  inti- 

*  See  tbvs  letter  in  JVi/es'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  xxxvn.,  pp.  91 — 93. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 


mate  friends  for  more  than  three  years,  vouching 
himself  for  their  patriotism  and  private  virtues.  Even 
this  authentication  did  not  create  implicit  belief  in  the 
minds  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

During  these  proceedings  of  Poinsett  in  Mexico 
the  newspapers  in  the  United  States  announced  that 
the  American  government  were  taking  proper  steps 
for  the  acquisition  of  Texas.  Intimations  were  also 
circulated  of  the  sum  Poinsett  had  been  authorized  to 
offer  for  it  ;  and,  to  make  sure  of  its  ultimate  attain 
ment,  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1829  emigrants 
from  the  United  States  were  encouraged  by  the  Amer 
ican  government  to  settle  in  Texas.  To  the  Southern 
States  the  acquisition  of  that  province  was  desirable, 
to  open  a  new  area  for  slavery.  In  open  defiance, 
therefore,  of  a  formal  decree  about  this  time  issued 
by  the  rulers  of  Mexico  prohibiting  slavery  in  Texas, 
the  emigrants  to  that  province  took  their  slaves  with 
them  ;  for  they  knew  that  the  object  of  the  American 
government  was  not  so  much  territory  as  a  slave  state, 
and  that  upon  their  effecting  this  result  their  admis 
sion  into  the  Union  would  depend.  Such  was  the 
policy  commenced  and  pursued  during  the  first  term 
of  Jackson's  administration.  It  was  the  conviction 
of,  this  which  led  Mr.  Adams  publicly  to  declare  that, 
though  "  profoundly  a  secret  as  it  respected  the  pub 
lic,  it  was  then  in  successful  progress  ;  "  and  to  make 
it  a  topic  of  severe  animadversion  and  warning,  com 
bined  with  language  of  prophecy,  which  events  soon 
expanded  into  history.  Every  movement  of  Jackson 
was  in  unison  with  the  policy  and  imbued  with  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  225 

spirit  of  the  slaveholders.  He  manifested  animosity 
to  the  protection  of  manufactures,  and  to  internal 
improvement  by  his  veto  of  the  bill  for  the  Maysville 
Turnpike,  and  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  by 
his  veto  of  the  bill  for  extending  its  charter ;  and, 
after  violently  denouncing  the  spirit  of  nullification, 
he  publicly  succumbed  to  it  by  proposing  a  modifica 
tion  of  the  tariff,  in  obedience  to  its  demands.  But 
the  most  flagrant,  act,  and  beyond  all  others  charac 
teristic  of  his  indomitable  tenacity  of  will,  overleap 
ing  all  the  limitations  of  precedent  and  the  constitu 
tion,  was  his  removal,  on  his  own  responsibility,  of 
the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
After  ascertaining  that  Duane,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  would  not  be  his  tool  in  that  service,  he, 
in  the  language  of  that  officer,  "concentrating  in 
himself  the  power  to  judge  and  execute,  to  absorb 
the  discretion  given  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
and  to  nullify  the  law  itself/'  proceeded  at  once  to 
remove  him,  and  to  raise  Eoger  B.  Taney  from  the 
office  of  Attorney- General  to  that  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  for  the  sole  object  of  availing  himself  of  an 
instrument  subservient  to  his  purposes. 

In  his  annual  message,  at  the  opening  of  the  session, 
Jackson  announced  to  Congress  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  had,  by  his  orders,  removed  the  public 
moneys  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
deposited  them  in  certain  state  banks. 

The  spirit  of  Mr.  Adams  kindled  at  this  usurpation, 
and  he  gave  eloquent  utterance  to  his  indignation. 
Among  the  remonstrances  to  Congress  against  this  act 

15 


226  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

of  President  Jackson,  one  from  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts  was  sent  to  him  for  presentation.  In 
his  attempt  to  fulfil  this  duty  he  was  defeated  three 
several  times  by  the  address  of  the  Speaker  of  the 
House,  and  finally  deprived  of  the  opportunity  by  the 
previous  question.  He  immediately  published  the 
speech  he  had  intended  to  deliver,  minutely  scru 
tinizing  the  President's  usurpation  of  power.  The 
removal  of  the  deposits,  and  the  contract  with  the 
state  banks  to  receive  those  deposits,  he  asserts  were 
both  unlawful;  and  the  measure  itself  neither  law 
ful  nor  just  —  an  arbitrary  act,  without  law  and 
against  law.  He  then  proceeds  to  analyze  the  whole 
series  of  documents  adduced  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  by  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
in  his  aid,  as  precedents  to  justify  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  and  concludes  a  lucid  and  laborious  argu 
ment  with,  "I  have  thus  proved,  to  the  very  rigor 
of  mathematical  demonstration,  that  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means,  to  bolster  up  the  lawless  act 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  transferring 
public  moneys  from  their  lawful  places  of  deposit  to 
others,  in  one  of  which,  at  least,  the  Secretary  had 
an  interest  of  private  profit  to  himself,  have  ran 
sacked  all  the  records  of  the  Treasury,  from  its  first 
institution  in  July,  1775,  to  this  day,  in  vain.  From 
the  whole  mass  of  vouchers,  to  authenticate  the 
lawful  disposal  of  the  public  moneys,  which  that 
department  can  furnish,  the  committee  have  gathered 
fifty  pages  of  documents,  which  they  would  pass  off 
as  precedents  for  this  flagrant  violation  of  the  laws, 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  227 

and  not  one  of  them  will  answer  their  purpose.  One 
of  them  alone  bears  a  partial  resemblance  to  the  act 
of  the  present  secretary  ;  and  that  one  the  very  doc 
ument  adduced  by  the  committee  themselves  pro 
nounces  and  proves  to  be  unlawful." 

After  some  remarks  upon  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  and  the  legal  restraints  upon  it,  he  pro 
ceeds  :  "I  believe  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of 
this  law  to  have  been  violated  by  the  present  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  when  he  transferred  the  public 
funds  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  to  the  Union 
Bank  of  Baltimore,  he  himself  being  a  stockholder 
therein.  And  so  thorough  is  my  conviction  of  this 
principle,  and  so  corrupting  and  pernicious  do  I  deem 
the  example  which  he  has  thereby  set  to  future  Com 
mittees  of  Ways  and  Means,  to  cite  as  precedents  for 
yet  ranker  rottenness,  that,  if  there  were  a  prospect 
of  his  remaining  in  office  longer  than  till  the  close  of 
the  present  session  of  the  Senate,  I  should  deem  it  an 
indispensable,  albeit  a  painful,  duty  of  my  station,  to 
take  the  sense  of  this  house  on  the  question.  And, 
sir,  if,  after  this  explicit  declaration  by  me,  the  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  has  not 
yet  slaked  his  thirst  for  precedents,  he  may  gratify  it 
by  offering  a  fifth  resolution,  in  addition  to  the  four 
reported  by  the  committee,  as  thus  :  Resolved,  that 
the  thanks  of  this  house  be  given  to  Roger  B.  Taney, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  for  his  pure  and  DISINTER 
ESTED  patriotism  in  transferring  the  use  of  the  public 
funds  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  where 
they  were  profitable  to  the  people,  to  the  Uni?u 


228  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Bank  of  Baltimore,  where  they  were  profitable  to  him 
self." 

He  then  proceeds  to  show,  in  a  severe  and  search 
ing  examination  of  the  proceedings  of  this  secretary, 
that  the  transfers  were  utterly  unwarrantable  ;  that 
he  tampered  with  the  public  moneys  to  sustain  the 
staggering  credit  of  selected  depositaries,  and  "  scat 
ter  it  abroad  among  swarms  of  rapacious  political  par 
tisans."  After  stating  and  answering  all  the  charges 
brought  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  against  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  showing  their  false 
hood  or  futility,  he  declares  all  the  proceedings  of 
the  directors  of  the  bank  to  have  been  within  the  pale 
of  action  warranted  by  the  laws  of  the  land  ;  and,  so 
long  as  they  do  this,  "  a  charge  of  dishonesty  or  cor 
ruption  against  them,  uttered  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  or  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  slander,  emitted  under  the 
protection  of  official  station,  against  private  citizens. 
This  is  both  ungenerous  and  unjust.  It  is  the  abuse 
of  the  shelter  of  official  station  to  circulate  calumny 
with  impunity." 

Mr.  Adams  next  examines  and  severely  reprobates 
the  declaration  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
that,  c '  if  the  last  Congress  had  continued  in  session 
one  week  longer,  the  bank  would,  by  corrupt  means, 
have  procured  a  re-charter  by  .majorities  of  two  thirds 
in  both  houses  of  Congress  ;  "  and  declares  the  impu 
tation  as  unjust  as  it  was  dishonorable  to  all  the 
parties  implicated  in  it.  He  did  not  believe  there 
was  one  member  in  the  last  Congress,  who  voted 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  229 

against  re-chartering  of  the  bank,  who  could  have  been 
induced  to  change  his  vote  by  corrupt  means,  had  the 
president  and  directors  of  the  bank  been  base  enough 
to  attempt  the  use  of  them.  "  That  the  imputation  is 
cruelly  ungenerous  towards  the  friends  of  the  adminis 
tration  in  this  house,  is,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  my 
deliberate  opinion  ;  and  now,  when  we  reflect  that 
this  defamatory  and  disgraceful  suspicion,  harbored  or 
professed  against  his  own  friends,  supporters,  and 
adherents,  was  the  real  and  efficient  cause  (to  call  it 
reason  would  be  to  shame  the  term),  that  it  was  the 
real  motive  for  the  removal  of  the  deposits  during  the 
recess  of  Congress,  and  only  two  months  before  its 
meeting,  what  can  we  do  but  hide  our  heads  with 
shame  ?  Sir,  one  of  the  duties  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  —  a  duty  as  sacred  as  that  to  which 
he  is  bound  by  his  official  oath  —  is  that  of  maintain 
ing  unsullied  the  honor  of  his  country.  But  how  could 
the  President  of  the  United  States  assert,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  any  foreigner,  a  claim  to  honorable  principle 
or  moral  virtue,  as  attributes  belonging  to  his  country 
men,  when  he  is  the  first  to  cast  the  indelible  stigma 
upon  them?  {  Vale,  venalis  civitas,  mox  peritura, 
si  emptorem  invenias^  was  the  prophetic  curse  of  Ju- 
gurtha  upon  Rome,  in  the  days  of  her  deep  corruption. 
If  the  imputations  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  upon  his  own  partisans  and  supporters  were 
\rue,  our  country  would  already  have  found  a  pur 
chaser." 

"That  this  was  the  true  and  efficient  cause,"  Mr. 
Adams  proceeds,    "of  that  removal,  is  evident,  not 


230  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS. 

only  by  the  positive  testimony  of  Mr.  Duane,  but 
from  the  utter  futility  of  the  reasons  assigned  by  Mr. 
Taney.  Mr.  Duane  states  that,  on  the  second  day 
after  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  the  President  himself  declared  to  him  his 
determination  to  cause  the  public  deposits  to  be  re 
moved  before  the  meeting  of  Congress.  He  said  that 
the  matter  under  consideration  was  of  vast  conse 
quence  to  the  country  ;  that,  unless  the  bank  was 
broken  down,  it  would  break  us  down  ;  that,  if  the 
last  Congress  had  remained  a  week  longer  in  session, 
two  thirds  would  have  been  secured  for  the  bank  by 
corrupt  means  ;  and  that  the  like  result  might  be 
apprehended  the  next  Congress ;  that  such  a  state 
bank  agency  must  be  put  in  operation,  before  the 
meeting  of  Congress,  as  would  show  that  the  United 
States  Bank  was  not  necessary,  and  thus  some  mem 
bers  would  have  no  excuse  for  voting  for  it.  '  My 
suggestions/  added  Mr.  Duane,  '  as  to  an  inquiry  by 
Congress,  as  in  1832,  or  a  recourse  to  the  judiciary, 
the  President  repelled,  saying  that  it  would  be  idle  to 
depend  upon  either  ;  referring,  as  to  the  judiciary,  to 
the  decisions  already  made  as  indications  of  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  an  appeal  to  them  in  future.' 
"These,  then,"  continued  Mr.  Adams,  "were  the 
effective  reasons  of  the  President  for  requiring  the 
removal  of  the  deposits  before  the  meeting  of  Congress. 
The  corruptibility  of  Congress  itself,  and  the  foregone 
decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
were  alike  despised  and  degraded.  The  executive 
will  was  substituted  in  the  place  of  both.  These  rea- 


MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.     231 

gons  had  been  urged,  without  success,  on  one  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  Louis  McLane.  He  had  been  pro 
moted  out  of  office,  and  they  were  now  pressed  upon 
the  judgment  and  pliability  of  another.  He,  too,  was 
found  refractory,  and  displaced.  A  third,  more  accom 
modating,  was  found  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Taney.  To 
Mm  the  reasons  of  the  President  were  all-sufficient, 
and  he  adopted  them  without  reserve.  They  were  all 
summed  up  in  one,  —  c  Sic  volo,  sic  jubeo,  stet  pro 
RATIONE  voluntas.' 

"It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  did  not  feel  himself  at  liberty  to  assign  this 
reason.  In  my  humble  opinion  it  ought  to  have  stood 
in  front  of  all  the  rest.  There  is  an  air  of  conscious 
shamefacedness  in  the  suppression  of  that  which  was 
so  glaringly  notorious  ;  and  something  of  an  appear 
ance  of  trifling,  if  not  of  mockery,  in  presenting  a 
long  array  of  reasons,  omitting  that  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  them  all. 

"The  will  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  was 
the  reason  paramount  to  all  others  for  the  removal,  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  deposits  from  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States.  It  was  part  of  his  system 
of  simplifying  the  machine  of  government,  to  which  it 
was  admirably  adapted.  It  placed  the  whole  revenue 
of  the  Union  at  any  time  at  his  disposal,  for  any  pur 
pose  to  which  he  might  see  fit  to  apply  it.  In  vain 
had  the  laws  cautiously  stationed  the  Register,  the 
Comptroller,  the  Treasurer,  as  checks  upon  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  so  that  the  most  trifling  sum  in 
the  treasury  should  never  be  accessible  to  any  one  or 


232  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCT    ADAMS. 

any  two  men.  With  a  removal  of  the  deposits  and  a 
transfer  draft,  millions  on  millions  may  be  transferred, 
by  the  stroke  of  the  pen  of  a  supple  and  submissive 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  from  place  to  place,  at 
home  and  abroad,  wherever  any  purpose,  personal  or 
political,  may  thereby  be  promoted. 

"  To  this  final  object  of  simplifying  the  machine 
two  other  maxims  have  been  proclaimed  as  auxiliary 
fundamental  principles  of  this  administration.  First, 
that  the  contest  for  place  and  power,  in  this  country, 
is  a  state  of  war,  and  all  the  emoluments  of  office  are 
the  spoils  of  victory.  The  other,  that  it  is  the  invari 
able  rule  of  the  President  to  reward  his  friends  and 
punish  his  enemies." 

In  the  course  of  the  years  1832  and  1833,  Free 
masonry  having  become  mingled  with  the  politics  of 
the  period,  Mr.  Adams  openly  avowed  his  hostility  to 
the  institution,  and  addressed  a  series  of  letters  to 
William  L.  Stone,  an  editor  of  one  of  the  New  York 
papers,  and  another  to  Edward  Livingston,  one  of  its 
high  officers,  and  a  third  to  the  Anti-masonic  Conven 
tion  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  which  his  views, 
opinions,  and  objections  to  that  craft,  are  stated  and 
developed  with  his  usual  laborious,  acute,  and  search 
ing  pathos  and  power. 

In  October,  1833,  Mr.  Adams  was  applied  to  by 
one.  of  his  friends  for  minutes  of  the  principal  meas 
ures  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration,  while  he  was  Sec 
retary  of  State,  and  also  of  his  own,  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  to  be  used  in  his  defence  in  a  pend 
ing  election.  "I  cannot  reconcile  myself,"  said  Mr. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  233 

Adams,  "  to  write  anything  for  my  own  election,  not 
even  for  the  refutation  of  the  basest  calumnies.  In  all 
my  election  contests,  therefore,  my  character  is  at  the 
mercy  Df  the  basest  slanderer  ;  and  slander  is  so  effect 
ive  a  power  in  all  our  elections,  that  the  friends  of  the 
candidates  for  the  highest  offices  use  it  without  scru 
ple.  I  know  by  experience  the  power  of  party  spirit 
upon  the  people.  Party  triumphs  over  party,  and  the 
people  are  all  enrolled  in  one  party  or  another.  The 
people  can  only  act  by  the  machinery  of  party." 

About  this  time  there  was  an  attempt  in  Norfolk 
County  to  get  up  a  Temperance  Society,  and  a  wish 
was  expressed  to  him  that  he  would  take  a  lead  in 
forming  it.  He  declined  from  an  unwillingness  to 
shackle  himself  with  obligations  to  control  his  indi 
vidual,  family,  and  domestic  arrangements  ;  from  an 
apprehension  that  the  temperance  societies,  in  their 
well-intended  zeal,  were  already  manifesting  a  tend 
ency  to  encroach  on  personal  freedom  ;  and  also  from 
an  opinion  that  the  cause  was  so  well  sustained  by 
public  approbation  and  applause  that  it  needed  not  the 
aid  of  his  special  exertions,  beyond  that  of  his  own 
example. 

On  the  12th  of  December,  1833,  Mr.  Clay  sent  a 
message  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  asking 
a  copy  of  his  written  communication  to  his  cabinet, 
made  on  the  18th  of  September,  about  the  removal  of 
the  deposits  from  the  United  States  Bank  ;  to  which 
the  President  replied  by  a  flat  refusal.  Mr.  Adams 
remarked:  ''There  is  a  tone  of  insolence  and  insult 
in  his  intercourse  with  both  houses  of  Congress, 


234  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

specially  since  his  reelection,  which  never  was  wit- 
.osed  between  the  Executive  and  Legislature  before. 
The  domineering  tone  has  heretofore  been  usually  on 
the  side  of  the  legislative  bodies  to  the  Executive, 
and  Clay  has  not  been  sparing  in  the  use  of  it.  He 
is  now  paid  in  his  own  coin." 

An  intelligent  foreigner,  in  relating  a  visit  to  Mr. 
Adams,  in  1834,  thus  describes  his  powers  of  conver 
sation  :  "  He  spoke  with  infinite  ease,  drawing  upon 
his  vast  resources  with  the  certainty  of  one  who  has 
his  lecture  before  him  ready  written.  He  maintained 
the  conversation  nearly  four  hours,  steadily,  in  one 
continuous  stream  of  light.  His  subjects  were  the 
architecture  of  the  middle  ages,  the  stained  glass  of 
that  period,  sculpture,  embracing  monuments  particu 
larly.  Milton,  Shakspeare,  Shenstone,  Pope,  Byron, 
and  Southey,  were  in  turn  remarked  upon.  He  gave 
Pope  a  wonderfully  high  character,  and  remarked  that 
one  of  his  chief  beauties  was  the  skill  exhibited  in 
varying  the  csesural  pause,  quoting  from  various  parts 
of  his  author  to  illustrate  his  remarks.  He  said  little 
on  the  politics  of  the  country,  but  spoke  at  consider 
able  length  of  Sheridan  and  Burke,  both  of  whom  he 
had  heard,  and  described  with  graphic  effect.  Junius, 
he  said,  was  a  bad  man,  but  maintained  that  as  a 
writer  he  had  never  been  equalled."  * 

In  March,  1834,  Mr.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  having 
indulged  in  an  idolizing  glorification  of  General  Jack 
son,  with  some  coarse  invectives  against  Mr.  Adams, 
the  latter  rose  and  said  :  "I  shall  not  reply  to  the  gen- 

*  JYiZes'  Weekly  Register,  vol.  XLVII.,  p.  91. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  235 

tleman  from  Tennessee  ;  and  I  give  notice,  once  foi 
all,  that,  whenever  any  admirer  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  shall  think  fit  to  pay  his  court  to 
him  in  this  house,  either  by  a  flaming  panegyric  upon 
him,  or  by  a  rancorous  invective  on  me,  he  shall  nevei 
elicit  one  word  of  reply  from  me. 

'  No  ;  let  the  candied  tongue  lick  absurd  pomp, 
And  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee, 
Where  THRIFT  may  follow  fawning.' 7 

On  the  20th  of  February,  1834,  Mr.  Adams  at 
tended  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Wirt,  on  which  event  he 
thus  uttered  his  feelings  :  ' '  For  the  rest  of  the  day  I 
was  unable  to  attend  to  anything.  I  could  think  of 
nothing  but  William  Wirt,  —  of  his  fine  talents,  of 
his  amiable  and  admirable  character ;  the  twelve 
years  during  which  we  had  been  in  close  official  rela 
tion  together  ;  *  the  scene  when  he  went  with  me  to 
the  capitol ;  his  warm  and  honest  sympathy  with  me 
in  my  trials  when  President  of  the  United  States  ; 
my  interview  with  him  in  January,  1831,  and  his 
faithful  devotion  to  the  memory  of  Monroe.  These 
recollections  were  oppressive  to  my  feelings.  I  thought 
some  public  testimonial  from  me  to  his  memory  was 
due  at  this  time.  But  Mr.  Wirt  was  no  partisan  of 
the  present  administration.  He  had  been  a  formal 
and  dreaded  opponent  to  the  reelection  of  Andrew 
Jackson  ;  and  so  sure  is  anything  I  say  or  do  to  meet 
insuperable  obstruction,  that  I  could  not  imagine  any- 

*  Mr.  Wirt  Teas  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  during  the  four  last 
years  of  Mr.  Monroe's  and  the  whole  of  Mr.  Adams'  administration. 


230     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

thing  I  could  offer  with  the  remotest  prospect  of  suc 
cess.  I  finally  concluded  to  ask  of  the  house,  to 
morrow  morning,  to  have  it  entered  upon  the  journal 
of  this  day  that  the  adjournment  was  that  the  Speaker 
and  members  might  be  able  to  attend  the  funeral  of 
William  Wirt.  I  wrote  a  short  address,  to  be  delivered 
at  the  meeting  of  the  house. " 

It  appears,  by  the  journal  of  the  house,  that,  on  the 
21st  of  February,  1834,  Mr.  Adams,  of  Massachusetts, 
addressed  the  chair  as  follows  :  * 

"  MR.  SPEAKER  :  A  rule  of  this  house  directs  that  the  Speaker 
shall  examine  arid  correct  the  journal  before  it  is  read.  I 
therefore  now  rise,  not  to  make  a  motion,  nor  to  offer  a  reso 
lution,  but  to  ask  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  house  to 
address  to  you  a  few  words  with  a  view  to  an  addition  which 
I  wish  to  be  made  to  the  journal,  of  the  adjournment  of  the 
house  yesterday. 

"  The  Speaker,  I  presume,  would  not  feel  himself  authorized 
to  make  the  addition  in  the  journal  which  I  propose,  without 
the  unanimous  consent  of  the  house  ;  and  I  therefore  now  pro 
pose  it  before  the  reading-  of  the  journal. 

"  I  ask  that,  after  the  statement  of  the  adjournment  of  the 
house,  there  be  added  to  the  journal  words  importing  that  it 
was  to  give  the  Speaker  and  members  of  the  house  an  oppor 
tunity  of  attending  the  funeral  obsequies  of  William  Wirt. 

"  At  the  adjournment  of  the  house  on  Wednesday  I  did  not 
know  what  the  arrangements  were,  or  would  be,  for  that 
mournful  ceremony.  Had  I  known  them,  I  should  have  moved 
a  postponed  adjournment,  which  would  have  enabled  us  to 
join  in  the  duty  of  paying  the  last  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
remains  of  a  man  who  was  an  ornament  of  his  country  and  of 
human  nature. 

"  The  customs  of  this  and  of  the  other  house  of  Congress 

*  See  Congressional  Debates,  vol.  x.,  part  2d,  p.  2758. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  237 

warrant  the  suspension  of  their  daily  labors  in  the  public  ser 
vice,  for  the  attendance  upon  funeral  rites,  only  in  the  case  of 
the  decease  of  their  own  members.  To  extend  the  usage  fur 
ther  might  be  attended  with  inconvenience  as  a  precedent ; 
nor  should  I  have  felt  myself  warranted  in  asking  it  upon  any 
common  occasion. 

"  Mr.  Wirt  had  never  been  a  member  of  either  house  of 
Congress.  But  if  his  form  in  marble,  or  his  portrait  upon 
canvas,  were  placed  within  these  walls,  a  suitable  inscription 
for  it  would  be  that  of  the  statue  of  Moliere  in  the  hall  of 
the  French  Academy :  '  Nothing  was  wanting  to  his  glory ; 
he  was  wanting  to  ours.' 

"  Mr.  Wirt  had  never  been  a  member  of  Congress  ;  but,  for 
a  period  of  twelve  years,  during  two  successive  administra 
tions  of  the  national  government,  he  had  been  the  official  and 
confidential  adviser,  upon  all  questions  of  law,  of  the  Presi 
dents  of  the  United  States  ;  and  he  had  discharged  the  duties 
of  that  station  entirely  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  officers  and 
of  the  country.  No  member  of  this  house  needs  to  be  re 
minded  how  important  are  the  duties  of  the  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States  ;  nor  risk  I  contradiction  in  affirming  that 
they  were  never  more  ably  or  more  faithfully  discharged  than 
by  Mr.  Wirt. 

"If  a  mind  stored  with  all  the  learning  appropriate  to  the 
profession  of  the  law,  and  decorated  with  all  the  elegance  of 
classical  literature  ;  if  a  spirit  imbued  with  the  sensibilities  of 
a  lofty  patriotism,  and  chastened  by  the  meditations  of  a  pro 
found  philosophy  ;  if  a  brilliant  imagination,  a  discerning  intel 
lect,  a  sound  judgment,  an  indefatigable  capacity,  and  vigorous 
energy  of  application,  vivified  with  an  ease  and  rapidity  of 
elocution,  copious  without  redundance,  and  select  without 
affectation  ;  if  all  these,  united  with  a  sportive  vein  of  humor, 
an  inoffensive  temper,  and  an  angelic  purity  of  heart ;  —  if  all 
these,  in  their  combination,  are  the  qualities  suitable  for  an 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  in  him  they  were  all 
eminently  combined. 

"  But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  pronounce  his  eulogy.  That 
pleasing  task  has  been  assigned  to  abler  hands,  and  to  a  more 


238     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

suitable  occasion.  He  will  there  be  presented  in  other,  though 
not  less  interesting  lights.  As  the  penetrating  delineator  of 
manners  and  character  in  the  British  Spy  ;  as  the  biographer 
of  Patrick  Henry,  dedicated  to  the  young  men  of  your  native 
commonwealth  ;  as  the  friend  and  delight  of  the  social  circle  ; 
as  the  husband  and  father  in  the  bosom  of  a  happy,  but  now 
most  afflicted  family; — in  all  these  characters  I  have  known, 
admired,  and  loved  him ;  and  now  witnessing,  from  the  very 
windows  of  this  hall,  the  last  act  of  piety  and  affection  over 
his  remains,  I  have  felt  as  if  this  house  could  scarcely  fulfil 
its  high  and  honorable  duties  to  the  country  which  he  had 
served,  without  some  slight,  be  it  but  a  transient,  notice  of 
his  decease.  The  addition  which  I  propose  to  the  journal  of 
yesterday's  adjournment  w6uld  be  such  a  notice.  It  would 
give  his  name  an  honorable  place  on  the  recorded  annals  of 
his  country,  in  a  manner  equally  simple  and  expressive.  I 
will  only  add  that,  while  I  feel  it  incumbent  upon  me  to  make 
this  proposal,  I  am  sensible  that  it  is  not  a  fit  subject  for 
debate  ;  and,  if  objected  to,  I  desire  you  to  consider  it  as 
withdrawn." 

Mr.  Adams  proceeds:  "When  the  question  of 
agreeing  to  the  proposed  addition  was  put  by  the 
Speaker,  Joel  K.  Mann,  of  Pennsylvania,  precisely  the 
rankest  Jackson  man  in  the  house,  said  '  No.'  There 
was  a  general  call  upon  him,  from  all  quarters  of  the 
house,  to  withdraw  his  objection ;  but  he  refused. 
Blair,  of  South  Carolina,  rose,  and  asked  if  the  mani 
fest  sense  of  the  house  could  be  defeated  by  one  objec 
tion.  The  Speaker  said  I  had  requested  that  my 
proposal  should  be  considered  as  withdrawn  if  an 
objection  should  be  made,  but  the  house  was  competent 
to  give  the  instruction,  upon  motion  made.  I  was  then 
called  upon  by  perhaps  two  thirds  of  the  house, — 
'  Move,  move,  move,' —  and  said,  I  had  hoped  the  pro- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  239 

posal  would  have  obtained  the  unanimous  assent  of 
the  house,  and  as  only  one  objection  had  been  made, 
which  did  not  appear  to  be  sustained  by  the  general 
sense  of  the  house,  I  would  make  the  motion  that  the 
addition  I  had  proposed  should  be  made  on  the  jour 
nal.  The  Speaker  took  the  question,  and  nine  tenths, 
at  least,  of  the  members  present  answered  'Ay.' 
There  were  three  or  four  who  answered  '  No/  But 
no  division  of  the  house  was  asked/' 

In  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  the 
30th  of  April,  1834,  on  striking  out  the  appropriation 
for  the  salaries  of  certain  foreign  ministers,  in  the 
course  of  his  remarks,  "Warren  R.  Davis,  of  South  Car 
olina,  turning  with  great  feeling  towards  Mr.  Adams, 
said  :  "  Well  do  I  remember  the  enthusiastic  zeal  with 
which  we  reproached  the  administration  of  that  gen 
tleman,  and  the  ardor  and  vehemence  with  which  we 
labored  to  bring  in  another.  For  the  share  I  had  in 
those  transactions,  —  and  it  was  not  a  small  one,  —  I 
hope  God  will  forgive  me,  for  I  never  shall  forgive 
myself." 

In  December,  1834,  Mr.  Adams,  at  the  unanimous 
request  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  delivered  an  ora 
tion  on  the  life,  character,  and  services,  of  Gilbert 
Metier  de  Lafayette.  The  House  of  Representatives 
ordered  fifty  thousand  copies  to  be  published  at  the 
national  expense,  and  the  Senate  ten  thousand.  Mr. 
Clay  said  that,  in  proposing  the  latter  number,  he  was 
governed  by  the  extraordinary  vote  of  the  house  ;  but 
that,  "  if  he  were  to  be  guided  by  his  opinion  of  the 
great  talents  of  the  orator,  and  the  extraordinary 


240     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

merit  of  the  oration,  he  felt  he  should  be  unable  to 
specify  any  number." 

In  January,  1835,  Mr.  Adams,  on  presenting  a  peti 
tion  of  one  hundred  and  seven  women  of  his  Congres 
sional  district,  praying  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  moved  its  reference  to  a  select 
committee,  with  instructions  ;  but  stated  that,  if  the 
house  chose  to  refer  it  to  the  Committee  on  the  District 
of  Columbia,  he  should  be  satisfied.  All  he  wished 
was  that  it  should  be  referred  to  some  committee.  He 
begged  those  members  who  could  command  a  majority 
of  the  house,  and  who,  like  himself,  were  unwilling 
to  make  the  abolition  question  a  stumbling-block,  to 
take  a  course  which  should  treat  petitions  with  respect. 
He  wished  a  report.  It  would  be  easy  to  show  that 
such  petitions  relative  to  the  District  of  Columbia 
ought  not  to  be  granted.  He  believed  the  true  course 
to  be  to  let  error  be  tolerated ;  to  grant  freedom  of 
speech  and  freedom  of  the  press,  and  apply  reason  to 
put  it  down.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  contended  by 
Southern  men  that  Congress  had  a  right  not  to  receive 
petitions,  especially  if  produced  to  create  excitement, 
and  wound  the  feelings  of  Southern  members.  Mr. 
Adams  advocated  the  right  of  petition.  If  the  lan 
guage  was  disrespectful,  that  objection  might  be  stated 
on  the  journal.  He  knew  that  it  was  difficult  to  use 
language  on  this  subject  which  slaveholders  would 
not  deem  disrespectful.  Congress  had  declared  the 
slave-trade,  when  carried  on  out  of  the  United  States, 
piracy.  He  was  opposed  to  that  act,  because  he  did 
not  think  it  proper  that  this  traffic  without  our  bound- 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  241 

arios  should  be  called  piracy,  while  there  was  no  con 
stitutional  right  to  interdict  it  within  our  borders.  It 
was  carried  on  in  sight  of  the  windows  of  the  capitol. 
He  deemed  it  a  fundamental  principle  that  Congress 
had  no  right  to  take  away  or  abridge  the  constitu 
tional  right  of  petition. 

The  petition  was  received,  its  commitment  refused 
by  the  house,  and  it  was  laid  on  the  table. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Adams  remarked  :  "  There  is 
something  extraordinary  in  the  present  condition  of 
parties  throughout  the  Union.  Slavery  and  democ 
racy —  especially  a  democracy  founded,  as  ours  is,  on 
the  rights  of  man  —  would  seem  to  be  incompatible 
with  each  other  ;  and  yet,  at  this  time,  the  democ 
racy  of  the  country  is  supported  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  by  slavery.  There  is  a  small,  enthusiastic 
party  preaching  the  abolition  of  slavery  upon  the 
principles  of  extreme  democracy.  But  the  democratic 
spirit  and  the  popular  feeling  are  everywhere  against 
them." 

In  August,  1835,  Mr.  Adams  was  invited  to  deliver 
an  address  before  the  American  Institute  of  New  York. 
After  expressing  his  good  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of 
the  institution,  and  of  their  cause,  he  stated,  in  reply, 
that  the  general  considerations  which  dictated  the 
policy  of  sustaining  and  cherishing  the  manufacturing 
interests  were  obvious,  and  had  been  presented  by 
Judge  Baldwin,  Mr.  J.  P.  Kennedy,  and  Mr.  Everett, 
with  eloquence  and  ability,  in  addresses  on  three  pre 
ceding  years.  If  he  should  deliver  the  address  re 
quested,  it  would  be  expected  that  he  would  present 

16 


242  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  subject  under  new  and  different  views.  His  own 
opinion  was  that  one  great  difficulty  under  which 
the  manufacturing  interest  of  the  country  labors  is  a 
political  combination  of  the  South  and  the  West 
against  it.  The  slaveholders  of  the  South  have  bought 
the  cooperation  of  the  Western  country  by  the  bribe 
of  the  Western  lands,  abandoning  to  the  new  Western 
States  their  own  proportion  of  this  public  property, 
and  aiding  them  in  the  design  of  grasping  all  the 
lands  in  their  own  hands.  Thomas  H.  Benton  was 
the  author  of  this  system,  which  he  brought  forward 
as  a  substitute  for  the  American  system  of  Mr.  Clay, 
and  to  supplant  the  latter  as  the  leading  statesman  of 
the  West.  Mr.  Clay,  by  his  tariff  compromise  with  Mr. 
Calhoun,  abandoned  his  own  American  system.  At 
the  same  time  he  brought  forward  a  plan  for  distrib 
uting  among  all  the  states  of  the  Union  the  proceeds 
of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands.  His  bill  for  that 
purpose  passed  both  houses  of  Congress,  but  was 
vetoed  by  President  Jackson,  who,  in  his  annual  mes 
sage  of  December,  1832,  formally  recommended  that 
all  the  public  lands  should  be  gratuitously  given  away 
to  individual  adventurers,  and  to  the  states  in  which 
the  lands  are  situated.  "  Now/'  said  Mr.  Adams, 
"  if,  at  this  time,  on  the  eve  of  a  presidential  election, 
I  should,  in  a  public  address  to  the  American  Insti 
tute,  disclose  the  state  of  things,  and  comment  upon 
it  as  I  should  feel  it  my  duty  to  do,  it  would  probably 
produce  a  great  excitement  and  irritation  ;  would  be 
charged  with  having  a  political  bearing,  and  subject 
me  to  the  imputation  of  tampering  with  the  election." 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  243 

On  the  25th  of  May,  1836,  Mr.  Adams  delivered, 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  speech  on  certain, 
resolutions  for  distributing  rations  from  the  public 
stores  to  the  distressed  fugitives  from  Indian  hostilities 
in  the  States  of  Alabama  and  Georgia.  "It  is,"  said 
he,  "  I  believe,  the  first  example  of  a  system  of  gra 
tuitous  donations  to  our  own  countrymen,  infinitely 
more  formidable  in  its  consequences  as  a  precedent, 
than  from  anything  appearing  on  its  face.  I  shall, 
nevertheless,  vote  for  it. "  "  It  is  one  of  a  class  of  legis 
lative  enactments  with  which  we  are  already  becoming 
familiar,  and  which,  I  greatly  fear,  will  ere  long  grow 
voluminous.  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  denominate 
them  the  scalping -knife  and  tomahawk  laws.  They 
are  all  urged  through  by  the  terror  of  those  instru 
ments  of  death,  under  the  most  affecting  and  pathetic 
appeals,  from  the  constituents  of  the  sufferers,  to  all 
the  tender  and  benevolent  sympathies  of  our  nature. 
It  is  impossible  for  me  to  withhold  from  those  appeals 
a  responsive  and  yielding  voice."  He  had  voted,  he 
said,  for  millions  after  millions,  and  would  again  and 
again  vote  for  drafts  from  the  public  chest  for  the  same 
purpose,  should  they  be  necessary,  until  the  treasury 
itself  should  be  drained. 

In  seeking  for  a  principle  to  justify  his  vote,  he 
could  find  it  nowhere  but  in  the  war  power  and  its 
limitation,  as  expressed  in  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  by  the  words  "the  common  defence  and 

*  ^^^g_-— ^agdfcB**"*""-""""*^^"* 

general  welfare."  The  war  poweT'was'in  this  respect 
different  from  the  peace  power.  The  former  was  de 
rived  from,  and  regulated  by,  the  laws  and  usages  of 


244  MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

nations.  The  latter  was  limited  by  regulations,  and 
restricted  by  provisions,  prescribed  within  the  consti 
tution  itself.  All  the  powers  incident  to  war  were,  by 
necessary  implication,  conferred  on  the  government  of 
the  United  States.  This  was  the  power  which  author 
ized  the  house  to  pass  this  resolution.  There  was  no 
other.  "  It  is  upon  this  principle,"  said  Mr.  Adams, 
"  that  I  shall  vote  for  this  resolution,  and  did  vote 
against  the  vote  reported  by  the  slavery  committee, 
'  that  Congress  possess  no  constitutional  authority  to 
interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery.'  I  do  not 
admit  that  there  is,  even  among  the  peace  powers  of 
Congress,  no  such  authority ;  but  in  many  ways  Con 
gress  not  only  have  the  authority,  but  are  bound  to 
interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states." 
Of  this  he  cites  many  instances,  and  asks  if,  in  case 
r  of  a  servile  insurrection,  Congress  would  not  have 
power  to  interfere,  and  to  supply  money  from  the 
funds  of  the  whole  Union  to  suppress  it. 

In  this  speech  Mr.  Adams  exposes  the  effects  of 
the  slave  influence  in  the  United  States,  by  the 
measures  taken  to  bring  about  a  war  with  Mexico. 
1.  By  the  proposal  that  she  should  cede  to  us  a  terri 
tory  large  enough  to  constitute  nine  states  equal  in 
extent  to  Kentucky.  2.  By  making  this  proposi 
tion  at  a  time  when  swarms  of  land-jobbers  from  the 
United  States  were  covering  these  Mexican  territories 
with  slaves,  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  Mexico  by 
which  slavery  had  been  abolished  throughout  that 
republic.  3.  By  the  authority  given  to  General 
Graines  to  invade  the  Mexican  republic,  and  which 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCT    ADAMS.  245 

had  brought  on  the  war  then  raging,  which  was  for  the 
reestablishment  of  slavery  in  territories  where  it  had 
been  abolished.  It  was  a  war,  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  of  conquest,  and  for  the  extension  of  slavery. 
Mr.  Adams  then  foretold,  what  subsequent  events 
proved,  that  the  war  then  commencing  would  be,  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  "a  war  of  aggression, 
conquest,  and  for  the  reestablishment  of  slavery  where 
it  has  been  abolished.  In  that  war  the  banners  of 
freedom  will  be  the  banners  of  Mexico,  and  your 
banners  —  I  blush  to  speak  the  word  —  will  be  the 
banners  of  slavery." 

The  nature  of  that  war,  its  dangers,  and  its  conse 
quences,  Mr.  Adams  proceeded  to  analyze,  and  to  show 
the  probability  of  an  interference  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  who  "  will  probably  ask  you  a  perplexing 
question  —  by  what  authority  you,  with  freedom,  inde 
pendence,  and  democracy,  on  your  lips,  are  waging  a 
war  of  extermination,  to  forge  new  manacles  and  fet 
ters  instead  of  those  which  are  falling  from  the  hands 
and  feet  of  men  ?  She  will  carry  emancipation  and 
abolition  with  her  in  every  fold  of  her  flag  ;  while 
your  stars,  as  they  increase  in  numbers,  wrill  be  over 
cast  by  the  murky  vapors  of  oppression,  and  the  only 
portion  of  your  banners  visible  to  the  eye  will  be  the 
blood-stained  stripes  of  the  taskmaster. " 

"  Mr.  Chairman,"  continued  Mr.  Adams,  "  are  you 
ready  for  all  these  wars  ?  A  Mexican  war ;  a  war 
with  Great  Britain,  if  not  with  France  ;  a  general 
Indian  war  ;  a  servile  war  ;  and,  as  an  inevitable  con 
sequence  of  them  all,  a  civil  war  ; — for  it  must  ulti 


24G     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

mately  terminate  in  a  war  of  colors,  as  well  as  of  races. 
And  do  you  imagine  that  while,  with  your  eyes  open, 
you  are  wilfully  kindling  these  wars,  and  then  closing 
your  eyes  and  blindly  rushing  into  them,  —  do  you 
imagine  that,  while  in  the  very  nature  of  things  your 
own  Southern  and  South-western  States  must  be  the 
Flanders  of  these  complicated  wars,  the  battle-field 
upon  which  the  last  great  conflict  must  be  fought 
between  slavery  and  emancipation,  —  do  you  imagine 
that  your  Congress  will  have  no  constitutional  author 
ity  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery,  in  any 
way,  in  the  states  of  this  confederacy  ?  Sir,  they  must 
and  will  interfere  with  it,  perhaps  to  sustain  it  by  war, 
perhaps  to  abolish  it  by  treaties  of  peace  ;  and  they 
will  not  only  possess  the  constitutional  power  so  to 
interfere,  but  they  will  be  bound  in  duty  to  do  it  by 
the  express  provisions  of  the  constitution  itself. 

"From  the  instant  that  your  slaveholding  states 
become  the  theatre  of  war,  civil,  servile,  or  foreign, 
from  that  instant  the  war  powers  of  Congress  extend 
to  interference  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  every 
way  by  which  it  can  be  interfered  with,  from  a  claim 
of  indemnity  for  slaves  taken  or  destroyed,  to  the 
cession  of  the  state  burdened  with  slavery  to  a  foreign 
power. 

"  Little  reason  have  the  inhabitants  of  Georgia  and 
of  Alabama  to  complain  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  has  been  remiss  or  neglectful  in  pro 
tecting  them  from  Indian  hostilities.  The  fact  is 
directly  the  reverse.  The  people  of  Alabama  and 
Georgia  are  now  suffering  the  recoil  of  their  own 


MEMOIR     (XF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  247 

unlawful  weapons.  Georgia,  sir,  Georgia,  by  tram 
pling  upon  the  faith  of  our  national  treaties  with  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  by  subjecting  them  to  her  state 
laws,  first  set  the  example  of  that  policy  which  is  now 
in  the  process  of  consummation  by  this  Indian  war 
In  setting  this  example  she  bade  defiance  to  the 
authority  of  the  government  of  this  nation.  She  nul 
lified  your  laws  ;  she  set  at  naught  your  executive  and 
judicial  guardians  of  the  common  constitution  of  the 
land.  To  what  extent  she  carried  this  policy,  the 
dungeons  of  her  prisons,  and  the  records  of  the  Su 
preme  Judicial  Court  of  the  United  States,  can  tell. 

"  To  those  prisons  she  committed  inoffensive,  inno 
cent,  pious  ministers  of  the  Gospel  of  truth,  for  car 
rying  the  light,  the  comforts,  the  consolations  of  that 
Gospel,  to  the  hearts  and  minds  of  those  unhappy 
Indians.  A  solemn  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  pronounced  that  act  a  violation  of 
your  treaties  and  your  laws. '  Georgia  defied  that 
decision.  Your  executive  government  never  carried 
it  into  execution.  The  imprisoned  missionaries  of 
the  Gospel  were  compelled  to  purchase  their  ransom 
from  perpetual  captivity  by  sacrificing  their  rights  as 
freemen  to  the  meekness  of  their  principles  as  Chris 
tians  :  and  you  have  sanctioned  all  these  outrages 
upon  justice,  law,  and  humanity,  by  succumbing  to 
the  power  and  the  policy  of  Georgia ;  by  accommo 
dating  your  legislation  to  her  arbitrary  will ;  by  tear 
ing  to  tatters  your  old  treaties  with  the  Indians,  and 
by  constraining  them,  under  peine  forte  et  dure,  to  the 
mockery  of  signing  other  treaties  with  you,  which,  at 


248  MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  first  moment  when  it  shall  suit  your  purpose,  you 
will  again  tear  to  tatters,  and  scatter  to  the  four  winds 
of  heaven  ;  till  the  Indian  race  shall  be  extinct  upon 
this  continent,  and  it  shall  become  a  problem,  beyond 
the  solution  of  antiquaries  and  historical  societies,  what 
the  red  man  of  the  forest  was. 

"  This,  sir,  is  the  remote  and  primitive  cause  of  the 
present  Indian  war — your  own  injustice  sanctioning 
and  sustaining  that  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  This 
system  of  policy  was  first  introduced  by  the  present 
administration  of  your  national  government.  It  is 
directly  the  reverse  of  that  system  which  had  been 
pursued  by  all  the  preceding  administrations  of  this 
government  under  the  present  constitution.  That  sys 
tem  consisted  in  the  most  anxious  and  persevering 
efforts  to  civilize  the  Indians,  to  attach  them  to  the 
soil  upon  which  they  lived,  to  enlighten  their  minds, 
to  soften  and  humanize  their  hearts,  to  fix  in  per 
manency  their  habitations,  and  to  turn  them  from 
the  wandering  and  precarious  pursuits  of  the  hunter 
to  the  tillage  of  the  ground,  to  the  cultivation  of  corn 
and  cotton,  to  the  comforts  of  the  fireside,  to  the 
delights  of  home.  This  was  the  system  of  Washing 
ton  and  of  Jefferson,  steadily  pursued  by  all  their 
successors,  and  to  which  all  your  treaties  and  all  your 
laws  of  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes  were  accom 
modated.  The  whole  system  is  now  broken  up,  and 
instead  of  it  you  have  adopted  that  of  expelling,  by 
force  or  by  compact,  all  the  Indian  tribes  from  their 
own  territories  and  dwellings  to  a  region  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  beyond  the  Missouri,  beyond  the  Arkan- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 


sas,  bordering  upon  Mexico  ;  and  there  you  have 
deluded  them  with  the  hope  that  they  will  find  a  per 
manent  abode,  a  final  resting-place  from  your  never- 
ending  rapacity  and  persecution.  There  you  have 
undertaken  to  lead  the  willing,  and  drive  the  reluctant, 
by  fraud  or  by  force,  by  treaty  or  by  the  sword  and 
the  rifle  —  all  the  remnants  of  the  Seminoles,  the 
Creeks,  of  the  Cherokees  arid  the  Choctaws,  and  of 
how  many  other  tribes  I  cannot  now  stop  to  enumer 
ate.  In  the  process  of  this  violent  and  heartless  oper 
ation  you  have  met  with  all  the  resistance  which  men 
in  so  helpless  a  condition  as  that  of  the  Indian  tribes 
can  make. 

"  Of  the  immediate  causes  of  the  war  we  are  not 
yet  fully  informed  ;  but  I  fear  you  will  find  them,  like 
the  remoter  causes,  all  attributable  to  yourselves. 

"It  is  in  the  last  agonies  of  a  people  forcibly  torn 
and  driven  from  the  soil  which  they  had  inherited  from 
their  fathers,  and  which  your  own  example,  and 
exhortations,  and  instructions,  and  treaties,  had  riv 
eted  more  closely  to  their  hearts  —  it  is  in  the  last 
convulsive  struggles  of  their  despair,  that  this  war  has 
originated  ;  and,  if  it  bring  some  portion  of  the 
retributive  justice  of  Heaven  upon  our  own  people,  it 
is  our  melancholy  duty  to  mitigate,  as  far  as  the  public 
resources  of  the  national  treasury  will  permit,  the  dis 
tresses  of  our  own  kindred  and  blood,  suffering  under 
the  necessary  consequences  of  our  own  wrong.  I  shall 
vote  for  the  resolution/' 

This  speech,  perhaps  one  of  the  most  suggestive 
and  prophetic  ever  made,  appears  in  none  of  the  news- 


250  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

papers  of  the  time,  and  was  published  by  Mr.  Adams 
from  his  own  minutes  and  recollections. 

In  September,  1836,  Mr.  Adams,  at  the  request  of 
the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Common  Council  of  the 
city  of  Boston,  delivered  a  eulogy  on  the  life  and 
character  of  James  Madison. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1837,  Mr.  Adams  offered 
fto  present  the  petition  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  women 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  Mr.  Glascock,  of  Georgia,  objected  to  its  recep 
tion.  Mr.  Adams  said  that  the  proposition  not  to  re 
ceive  a  petition  was  directly  in  the  face  of  the  constitu 
tion.  He  hoped  the  people  of  this  country  would  be 
spared  the  mortification,  the  injustice,  and  the  wrong, 
of  a  decision  that  such  petitions  should  not  be  received. 
It  was  indeed  true  that  all  discussion,  all  freedom  of 
speech,  all  freedom  of  the  press,  on  this  subject,  had 
been,  within  the  last  twelve  months,  violently  assailed 
in  every  form  in  which  the  liberties  of  the  people 
could  be  attacked.  He  considered  these  attacks  as 
outrages  on  the  constitution  of  the  country,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  people,  as  far  as  they  went.  But  the 
proposition  that  such  petitions  should  not  be  received 
went  one  step  further.  He 'hoped  it  would  not  obtain 
the  sanction  of  the  house,  which  could  always  reject 
such  petitions  after  they  had  been  considered.  Among 
the  outrages  inflicted  on  that  portion  of  the  people  of 
this  country  whose  aspirations  were  raised  to  the  great 
est  improvement  that  could  possibly  be  effected  in  the 
condition  of  the  human  race,  —  the  total  abolition  of 
slavery  on  earth,  —  that  of  calumny  was  the  most 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  251 

glaring.  Their  petitions  were  treated  with  contempt, 
and  the  petitioners  themselves  loaded  with  foul  and 
infamous  imputations,  poured  forth  on  a  class  of  citi 
zens  as  pure  and  virtuous  as  the  inhabitants  of  any 
section  of  the  United  States. 

Violent  debates  and  great  confusion  in  the  house 
ensued ;  but  when  the  question,  "  Shall  the  petition 
be  received?"  was  put,  it  was  decided  in  the  affirma 
tive —  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  ayes,  seventy-five 
nays.  Mr.  Adams  then  moved  that  the  petition  should 
be  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  This  was  superseded  by  a  motion  to  lay  it  on 
the  table,  which  passed  in  the  affirmative  —  ayes  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  n&y&Jifty. 

On  the  18th  of  January,  1837,  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  passed  a  resolution,  —  one  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  ayes,  sixty-nine  nays, —  "that  all  peti 
tions  relating  to  slavery,  without  being  printed  or 
referred,  shall  be  laid  on  the  table,  and  no  action  shall 
be  had  thereon." 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1837,  Mr.  Adams  stated 
that  he  held  in  his  hand  a  paper,  on  which,  before 
presenting  it,  he  desired  to  have  the  decision  of  the 
Speaker.  It  purported  to  come  from  slaves  ;  and  he 
wished  to  know  if  such  a  paper  came  within  the  order 
of  the  house  respecting  petitions.  Great  surprise  and 
astonishment  were  expressed  by  the  slaveholders  in 
the  house  at  such  a  proposition.  One  member  pro 
nounced  it  an  infraction  of  decorum,  that  ought  to 
be  punished  severely.  Another  said  it  was  a  viola 
tion  of  the  dignity  of  the  house,  and  ought  to  be  taken 


252     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

and  burnt.  Waddy  Thompson^  of  South  Carolina, 
moved  the  following  resolution  :  "  Resolved,  that  the 
Honorable  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  the  attempt  just 
made  by  him  to  introduce  a  petition  purporting  on  its 
face  to  be  from  slaves,  has  been  guilty  of  a  gross  disre 
spect  to  the  house ;  and  that  he  be  instantly  brought  to 
the  bar  to  receive  the  severe  censure  of  the  Speaker." 
Charles  E.  Haynes,  of  Georgia,  moved  "  to  strike  out 
all  after  Resolved,  and  insert '  that  John  Quincy  Adams, 
a  representative  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  has 
rendered  himself  justly  liable  to  the  severest  censure 
of  this  house,  and  is  censured  accordingly,  for  having 
attempted  to  present  to  the  house  the  petition  of 
slaves/  "}Dixon  II.  Lewis,  of  Alabama,  offered  a  mod 
ification  of  Waddy  Thompson's  resolution,  which  he 
accepted,  "  that  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  his  attempt 
to  introduce  into  the  house  a  petition  from  slaves,  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
committed  an  outrage  on  the  rights  and  feelings  of 
a  large  portion  of  the  people  of  this  Union,  and  a  fla 
grant  contempt  on  the  dignity  of  this  house  ;  and,  by 
extending  to  slaves  a  privilege  only  belonging  to  free 
men,  directly  invites  the  slave  population  to  insurrec 
tion  ;  and  that  the  said  member  be  forthwith  called 
to  the  bar  of  this  house,  and  be  censured  by  the 
Speak or/' 

After  violent  debates  and  extreme  excitement,  Mr. 
Adams  rose  and  said  :  "In  regard  to  the  resolutions 
now  before  the  house,  as  they  all  concur  in  naming 
me,  and  charging  me  with  high  crimes  and  misde 
meanors,  and  in  calling  me  to  the  bar  of  the  house  tc 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  253 

answer  for  my  crimes,  I  have  thought  it  my  duty  to 
remain  silent  until  it  should  be  the  pleasure  of  the 
house  to  act  on  one  or  other  of  those  resolutions.  ~  I 
suppose  that,  if  I  shall  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  the 
house,  I  shall  not  be  struck  mute  by  the  previous 
question,  before  I  have  an  opportunity  to  say  a  word 
or  two  in  my  own  defence.  But,  sir,  to  prevent  fur 
ther  consumption  of  the  time  of  the  house,  I  deem  it 
my  duty  to  ask  them  to  modify  their  resolution.  It 
may  be  as  severe  as  they  propose,  but  I  ask  them  to 
change  the  matter  of  fact  a  little,  so  that  when  I  come 
to  the  bar  of  the  house,  I  may  not,  by  .a  single 
word,  put  an  end  to  it.  I  did  not  present  the  peti 
tion,  and  I  appeal  to  the  Speaker  to  say  that  I  did 
not.  I  said  I  hadj^ paper  purporting  to  be  a  peti 
tion  from  slaves.  I  did  not  say  what  the  prayer  of 
the  petition  was.  I  asked  the  Speaker  whether  he 
considered  such  a  paper  as  included  within  the  general 
order  of  the  house^that  all  petitions,  memorials,  res 
olutions,  and  papers,  relating  in  any  way  to  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery,  should  be  laid  upon  the  table.  I 
intended  to  take  the  decision  of  the  Speaker  before  I 
went  one  step  towards  presenting,  or  offering  to  pre 
sent,  that  petition.  I  stated  distinctly  to  the  Speaker 
that  I  should  not  send  the  paper  to  the  table  until  the 
question  was  decided  whether  a  paper  from  persons 
declaring  themselves  slaves  was  included  within  the 
order  of  the  house.  ^This  is  the  fact." 

It  having  been  stated  in  one  of  the  resolutions  that 
the  petition  was  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Mr. 
Adams  said  the  gentleman  moving  it  "must  amend 


254     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

his  resolution  ;  for,  if  the  house  should  choose  to  read 
this  petition,  I  can  state  to  them  they  would  find  it 
something  very  much  the  reverse  of  that  which  the 
resolution  states  it  to  be  ;  and  that  if  the  gentleman 
from  Alabama  still  shall  choose  to  bring  me  to  the  bar 
of  the  house,  he  must  amend  his  resolution  in  a  very 
important  particular,  for  he  probably  will  have  to  put 
into  it  that  my  crime  has  been  for  attempting  to  intro 
duce  the  petition  of  slaves  that  slavery  should  not  be 
.  abolished  ;  and  that  the  object  of  these  slaves,  who 
have  sent  this  paper  to  me,  is  precisely  that  which  he 
desires  to  accomplish,  and  that  they  are  his  auxilia 
ries,  instead  of  being  his  opponents/J 

In  respect  of  the  allegation  that  he  had  introduced 
a  petition  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  Mr.  Adams  said  :  "  It  is  well  known  to  all 
the  members  of  this  house  —  it  is  certainly  known  to 
all  petitioners  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  —  that,  from  the  day  I  entered  this 
house  to  the  present  moment,  I  have  invariably  here, 
and  invariably  elsewhere,  declared  my  opinions  to  be 
adverse  to  thejprayerjjfjpctitlons  that  call  for  the  abo 
lition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  But,  sir, 
it  is  equally  well  known  that,  from  the  time  I  entered 
this  house,  clown  to  the  present  day,  I  have  felt  it  a 
sacred  duty  to  present  any  petition,  couched  in  respect 
ful  language,  from  any  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
be  its  object  what  it  may — be  the  prayer  of  it  that  in 
which  I  could  concur,  or  that  to  which  I  was  utterly 
opposed.  I  adhere  to  the  right  of  petition  ;  and  let 
me  say  here  that,  let  the  petition  be,  as  the  gentleman 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  255 

from  Virginia  has  stated,  from  free  negroes,  prosti 
tutes,  as  he  supposes,  —  for  he  says  there  is  one 
put  on  this  paper,  and  he  infers  that  the  rest  are 
of  the  same  description,  —  that  has  not  altered  my 
opinion  at  all.  Where  is  your  law  which  says  that  the 
mean,  the  low,  and  the  degraded,  shall  be  deprived  of 
the  right  of  petition,  if  their  moral  character  is  not 
good  ?  Where,  in  the  land  of  freemen,  was  the  right 
of  petition  ever  placed  on  the  exclusive  basis  of 
morality  and  virtue  ?  Petition  is  supplication  —  it  is 
entreaty  —  it  is  prayer  !  And  where  is  the  degree  of 
vice  or  immorality  which  shall  deprive  the  citizen  of 
the  right  to  supplicate  for  a  boon,  or  to  pray  for 
mercy  ?  Where  is  such  a  law  to  be  found  ?  It  does 
not  belong  to  the  most  abject  despotism.  There  is  no 
absolute  monarch  on  earth  who  is  not  compelled,  by 
the  constitution  of  his  country,  to  receive  the  petitions 
of  his  people,  whosoever  they  may  be.  The  Sultan 
of  Constantinople  cannot  walk  the  streets  and  refuse 
to  receive  petitions  from  the  meanest  and  vilest  in  the 
land.  This  is  the  law  even  of  despotism  ;  and  what 
does  your  law  say  ?  Does  it  say  that,  before  present 
ing  a  petition,  you  shall  look  into  it,  and  see  whether 
it.  comes  from  the  virtuous,  and  the  great,  and  the 
mighty?  No,  sir  ;  it  says  no  such  thing.  The  right 
of  petition  belongs  to  all ;  and  so  far  from  refusing  to 
present  a  petition  because  it  might  come  from  those 
low  in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  it  would  be  an 
additional  incentive,  if  such  an  incentive  were  want 
ing." 

In  the  course  of  this  debate  Mr.  Thompson,  of  South 


256  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Carolina,  said  that  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Adams  was  a 
proper  subject  of  inquiry  by  the  Grand  Jury  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  stated  that  such,  in  a  like 
case,  would  be  the  proceedings  under  the  law  in  South 
Carolina.  Mr.  Adams,  in  reply,  exclaimed  :  "If  this 
is  true,  —  if  a  member  is  there  made  amenable  to  the 
Grand  Jury  for  words  spoken  in  debate, — I  thank  God 
I  am  not  a  citizen  of  South  Carolina  !  Such  a  threat, 
when  brought  before  the  world,  would  excite  nothing 
but  contempt  and  amazement.  What !  are  we  from 
the  Northern  States  to  be  indicted  as  felons  and  incen 
diaries,  for  presenting  petitions  not  exactly  agreeable 
to  some  members  from  the  South,  by  a  jury  of  twelve 
men,  appointed  by  a  marshal,  his  office  at  the  pleas 
ure  of  the  President !  If  the  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina,  by  bringing  forward  this  resolution  of  cen 
sure,  thinks  to  frighten  me  from  my  purpose,  he  has 
mistaken  his  man.  I  am  not  to  be  intimidated  by 
him,  nor  by  all  the  Grand  Juries  of  the  universe/' 

After  a  debate  of  excessive  exacerbation,  lasting 
for  four  days,  only  twenty  votes  could  be  found  indi 
rectly  and  remotely  to  censure.  In  the  course  of  this 
discussion  circumstances  made  it  probable  that  the 
names  appended  to  the  petition  were  not  the  signatures 
of  slaves,  and  that  the  whole  was  a  forgery,  and 
designed  as  a  hoax  upon  him.  On  which  suggestion 
Mr.  Adams  stated  to  the  house  that  he  now  believed 
the  paper  to  be  a  forgery ',  by  a  slaveholding  master, 
for  the  purpose  of  daring  him  to  present  a  petition 
purporting  to  be  from  slaves  ;  that,  having  now  rea 
son  to  believe  it  a  forgery,  he  should  not  present  the 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  257 

petition,  whatever  might  be  the  decision  of  the  house. 
If  he  should  present  it  at  all,  it  would  be  to  invoke 
the  authority  of  the  house  to  cause  the  author  of  it  to 
be  prosecuted  for  the  forgery,  if  there  were  competent 
judicial  tribunals,  and  he  could  obtain  evidence  to 
prove  the  fact.  He  did  not  consider  a  forgery  com 
mitted  to  deter  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  dis 
charge  of  his  duty  as  a  hoax.* 

In  March,  1837?  Mr.  Adams  addressed  a  series  of 
letters  to  his  constituents,  transmitting  his  speech 
vindicating  his  'course  _on_jbhe  right  of  petition,  and 
his  proceedings  on  the  subject  of  the  presentation  of 
a  petition  purporting  to  be  from  slaves.  These  letters 
were  published  in  a  pamphlet,  and  were  at  the  time 
justly  characterized  as  "a  triumphant  vindication  of 
the  right  of  petition,  and  a  graphic  delineation  of 
the  slavery  spirit  in  Congress  ^"and  it  was  further 
said  of  them,  that,  "  apart  from  the  interest  excited 
by  the  subjects  under  discussion,  and  viewed  only  as 
literary  productions,  they  may  be  ranked  among  the 
highest  literary  efforts  of  the  author.  Their  sarcasm 
is  Junius-like —  cold,  keen,  unsparing/'  A  few  ex 
tracts  may  give  an  idea  of  the  spirit  and  character  of 
this  publication. 

Commenting  on  Mr.  Thompson's  resolution,  as  mod 
ified  by  Mr.  Lewis  (p.  249),  Mr.  Adams  exclaims  : 

"  My  constituents  !  Reflect  upon  the  purport  of  this 
resolution,  which  was  immediately  accepted  by  Mr. 
Thompson  as  a  modification  of  his  own,  and  as  unhes 
itatingly  received  by  the  Speaker.  He  well  knew  I 

*  JVi/es'  Weekly  Register,  N.  S.t  vol.  I.,  pp.  385—390,  et  seq. 
17 


258  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

had  made  no  attempt  to  introduce  to  the  house  a  peti 
tion  from  slaves  ;  and,  if  I  had,  he  knew  I  should 
have  done  no  more  than  exercise  my  right  as  a  member 
of  the  house,  and  that  the  utmost  extent  of  the  power 
of  the  house  would  have  been  to  refuse  to  receive  the 
petition.  The  Speaker's  duty  was  to  reject  instantly 
this  resolution,  and  tell  Mr.  Lewis  and  Mr.  Thompson 
that  the  first  of  his  obligations  was  to  protect  the 
rights  of  speech  of  members  of  that  house,  which  I  had 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  infringed.  But  the  Speaker 
was  a  master. 

"  Observe,  too,  that  in  this  resolution  the  notable 
discovery  was  first  made  that  I  had  directly  invited  the 
slaves  to  insurrection ;  of  which  bright  thought  Mr. 
Thompson  afterwards  availed  himself  to  threaten  me 
with  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  as 
an  incendiary  and  felon.  I  pray  you  to  remember 
this,  not  on  my  account,  or  from  the  suspicion  that  I 
could  or  shall  ever  be  moved  from  my  purpose  by  such 
menaces,  but  to  give  you  the  measure  of  slaveholding 
freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press,  of  action,  of  thought ! 
If  such  a  question  as  I  asked  of  the  Speaker  is  a  direct 
invitation  of  the  slaves  to  insurrection,  forfeiting  all 
my  rights  as  representative  of  the  people,  subjecting 
me  to  indictment  by  a  grand  jury,  conviction  by  a 
petit  jury,  and  to  an  infamous  penitentiary  cell,  I  ask 
you,  not  what  freedom  of  speech  is  left  to  your  repre 
sentative  in  Congress,  but  what  freedom  of  speech,  of 
the  press,  and  of  thought,  is  left  to  yourselves. 

"  There  is  an  express  provision  of  the  constitution 
that  Congress  shall  pass  no  law  abridging  the  right  of 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  259 

petition  ;  and  here  is  a  resolution  declaring  that  a 
member  ought  to  be  considered  as  regardless  of  the 
feelings  of  the  house,  the  rights  of  the  South,  and  an 
enemy  to  the  Union,  for  presenting  a  petition. 

' c  Regardless  of  the  feelings  of  the  house  !  What 
have  the  feelings  of  the  house  to  do  with  the  free 
agency  of  a  member  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  ? 
One  of  the  most  sacred  duties  of  a  member  is  to  pre 
sent  the  petitions  committed  to  his  charge  ;  a  duty 
which  he  cannot  refuse  or  neglect  to  perform  without 
violating  his  oath  to  support  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  He  is  not,  indeed,  bound  to  present 
all  petitions.  If  the  language  of  the  petition  be  dis 
respectful  to  the  house,  or  to  any  of  its  members, — 
if  the  prayer  of  the  petition  be  unjust,  immoral,  or 
unlawful,  —  if  it  be  accompanied  by  any  manifesta 
tion  of  intended  violence  or  disorder  on  the  part  of 
the  petitioners,  —  the  duty  of  the  member  to  present 
ceases,  not  from  respect  for  the  feelings  of  the  house, 
but  because  those  things  themselves  strike  at  the  free 
dom  of  speech  and  action  as  well  of  the  house  as  of 
its  members.  Neither  of  these  can  be  in  the  least 
degree  affected  by  the  mere  circumstance  of  the  con 
dition  of  the  petitioner.  Nor  is  there  a  shadow  of 
reason  why  feelings  of  the  house  should  be  outraged 
by  the  presentation  of  a  petition  from  slaves,  any  more 
than  by  petitions  from  soldiers  in  the  army,  seamen  in 
the  navy,  or  from  lhe~  working- women  in  a  manufac 
tory. 

"Regardless  of  the  rights  of  the  South!  What 
are  the  rights  of  the  South?  What  is  the  South? 


260     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

As  a  component  portion  of  this  Union,  the  population 
of  the  South  consists  of  masters,  of  slaves,  and  of  free 
persons,  white  and  colored,  without  slaves.  Of  which 
of  these  classes  would  the  rights  he  disregarded  by  the 
presentation  of  a  petition  from  slaves?  Surely  not 
those  of  the  slaves  themselves,  the  suffering,  the  labo 
rious,  the  producing  classes.  0,  no !  there  would  be 
no,  disregard  of  their  rights  in  the  presentation  of  a 
petition  from  them.  The  very  essence  of  the  crime 
consists  in  an  alleged  undue  regard  for  their  rights  ; 
in  not  denying  them  the  rights  of  human  nature  ;  in 
not  classing  them  with  horses,  and  dogs,  and  cats. 
Neither  could  the  rights  of  the  free  people  without 
slaves,  whether  white,  black,  or  colored,  be  disre 
garded  by  the  presentation  of  a  petition  from  slaves, 
Their  rights  could  not  be  affected  by  it  at  all.  The 
rights  of  the  South,  then,  here  mean  the  rights  of  the 
masters  of  slaves,  which,  to  describe  them  by  an  inof 
fensive  word,  I  will  call  the  rights  of  mastery.  These, 
by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  are  recog 
nized,  not  directly,  but  by  implication,  and  protection 
is  stipulated  for  them,  by  that  instrument,  to  a  certain 
extent.  But  they  are  rights  incompatible  with  the 
inalienable  rights  of  all  mankind,  as  set  forth  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  —  incompatible  with  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  constitutions  of  all  the 
free  states  of  the  Union  ;  and  therefore,  when  provided 
for  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  are  indi 
cated  by  expressions  which  must  receive  the  narrowest 
and  most  restricted  construction,  and  never  be  enlarged 
by  implication.  There  is,  I  repeat,  not  one  word,  not 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  261 

one  syllable,  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  interdicts  to  Congress  the  reception  of  petitions 
from  slaves  ;  and  as  there  is  express  interdiction  to 
Congress  to  abridge  by  law  the  right  of  petition,  that 
right,  upon  every  principle  of  fair  construction,  is  as 
much  the  right  of  the  South  as  of  the  North  —  as 
much  the  right  of  the  slave  as  of  the  master  ;  and  the 
presentation  of  a  petition  from  slaves,  for  a  legitimate 
object,  respectful  in  language,  and  in  its  tone  and 
character  submissive  to  the  decision  which  the  house 
may  pass  upon  it,  far  from  degrading  the  rights  of 
the  South,  is  a  mark  of  signal  homage  to  those 
rights. 

"  An  enemy  to  the  Union  for  presenting  a  petition  ! 
—  an  enemy  to  the  Union  !  I  have  shown  that  the 
presentation  of  petitions  is  one  of  the  most  imperious 
duties  of  a  member  of  Congress.  *  I  trust  I  have 
shown  that  the  right  of  petition,  guaranteed  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  without  exception  of 
slaves,  express  or  implied,  cannot  be  abridged  by  any 
act  of  both  houses,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  ;  but  this  resolution,  by  the 
act  of  one.  branch  of  the  Legislature,  would  effect  an 
enormous  abridgment  of  the  right  of  petition,  not  only 
by  denying  it  to  full  one  sixth  part  of  the  whole  peo 
ple,  but  by  declaring  an  enemy  to  the  Union  any 
member  of  the  house  who  should  present  such  a  peti 
tion. 

"  When  the  resolution  declaring  that  I  had  trifled 
with  the  house  was  under  consideration,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  allegations  laid  to  my  charge  was 


202     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

that,  by  asking  that  question,  I  had  intended  indi 
rectly  to  cast  ridicule  upon  that  resolution,  and  upon 
the  house  for  adopting  it.  Nor  was  this  entirely  with 
out  foundation.  I  did  not  intend  to  cast  ridicule  upon 
the  house,  but  to  expose  the  absurdity  of  that  resolu 
tion,  against  which  I  had  protested  as  unconstitutional 
and  unjust.  But  the  characteristic  peculiarity  of  this 
charge  against  me  was,  that,  while  some  of*  the  gen 
tlemen  of  the  South  were  urging  the  house  to  pass  a 
vote  of  censure  upon  me,  for  a  distant  and  conjectural 
inference  of  my  intention  to  deride  that  resolution, 
others  of  them,  in  the  same  debate,  and  on  the  same 
day,  were  showering  upon  the  same  resolution  direct 
expressions  of  unqualified  contempt,  without  even  being 
called  to  order.  Like  the  saints  in  Hudibras, — 

'  The  saints  may  do  the  same  thing  by 
The  Spirit  in  sincerity, 
Which  other  men  are  prompted  to, 
And  at  the  devil's  instance  do  ; 
And  yet  the  actions  be  contrary, 
Just  as  the  saints  and  wicked  vary/ — 

so  it  was  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  South.  While 
Mr.  Pickens  could  openly  call  the  resolution  of  the 
18th  of  January  a  miserable  and  contemptible  resolu 
tion, —  while  Mr.  Thompson  could  say  it  was  only  fit 
to  be  burnt  by  the  hands  of  the  hangman,  without 
rebuke  or  reproof, —  I  was  to  be  censured  by  the  house 
for  casting  ridicule  upon  them  by  asking  the  ques 
tion  whether  the  resolution  included  petitions  from 
slaves." 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  263 

About  this  time  Mr.  Adams  received  an  invitation 
<o  attend  a  public  meeting  at  New  York  during  the 
session  of  Congress.  He  replied:  "I  do  not  hold 
myself  at  liberty  to  absent  myself  from  the  house  a 
single  day.  Such  is  my  estimate  of  representative 
duty,  confirmed  by  a  positive  rule  of  the  house  itself, 
not  the  less  obligatory  for  being  little  observed/' 

In  December,  1835,  President  Jackson  transmitted 
to  Congress  a  message  relative  to  the  bequest  of  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  from  James  Smithson,  of 
London,  to  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  estab 
lishing  at  Washington  an  institution  < '  for  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men;''  and  sub 
mitted  the  subject  to  Congress  for  its  consideration. 
A  question  was  immediately  raised  whether  Congress 
had  power,  in  its  legislative  capacity,  to  accept  such  a 
bequest  ;  and  also  whether*,  having  the  power,  its 
acceptance  was  expedient.  The  message  of  the  Pres 
ident  was  referred  to  a  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Adams 
was  appointed  chairman.  No  subject  could  be  better 
adapted  to  excite  into  action  his  public  spirit  than  the 
hopes  awakened  for  his  country  by  the  amount  of  this 
bequest,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  objects  for  which  it 
was  appropriated.  The  general  tenor  of  the  testator's 
will  excited  numerous  private  interests  and  passions 
with  regard  to  the  application  of  the  fund.  Mr.  Adams 
immediately  brought  the  whole  strength  and  energy 
of  his  mind  to  give  it  a  proper  direction.  Although 
some  of  his  recommendations  were  slighted,  and  an 
object  near  his  heart,  an  astronomical  observatory,  was 
resisted  by  party  spirit,  his  zeal  and  perseverance 


264  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

effectually  prevented  the  bequest  from  being  diverted 
to  local  and  temporary  objects,  and  his  general  views 
relative  to  Mr.  Smithson's  design  ultimately  pre 
vailed. 

In  January,  1836,  Mr.  Adams,  as  chairman  of  the 
committee,  made  a  report,  declaring  that  Congress 
was  competent  to  accept  the  bequest,  and  that  its 
acceptance  was  enjoined  by  considerations  of  the  most 
imperious  obligations,  and  suggesting  some  interesting 
reflections  on  the  subject.  The  testator,  he  said,  was 
a  descendant  in  blood  from  the  Percys  and  the  Sey 
mours, —  two  of  the  most  illustrious  names  of  the 
British  islands; — the  brother  of  the  Duke  of  North 
umberland,  who,  by  the  name  of  Percy,  was  known 
at  the  sanguinary  opening  scenes  of  our  Revolutionary 
War,  and  fought  as  a  British  officer  at  Lexington  and 
Bunker  Hill,  and  was  the  bearer  of  the  despatches, 
from  the  commander  of  the  British  forces  to  his  gov 
ernment,  announcing  the  event  of  that  memorable  day. 
"  The  suggestions  which  present  themselves  to  the 
mind,"  Mr.  Adams  adds,  "by  the  association  of  these 
historical  recollections  with  the  condition  of  the  testa 
tor,  derive  additional  interest  from  the  nature  of  the 
bequest,  the  devotion  of  a  large  estate  to  an  institu 
tion  '  for  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men/  '  The  noble  design  of  Mr.  Smithson 
Mr.  Adams  thus  proceeds  to  illustrate  • 

"  Of  all  the  foundations  of  establishments  for  pious  or  char 
itable  uses,  which  ever  signalized  the  spirit  of  the  age,  or  the 
comprehensive  beneficence  of  the  founder,  none  can  be- named 
more  deserving  of  the  approbation  of  mankind  than  this. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  265 

Should  it  be  faithfully  carried  into  effect,  with  an  earnestness 
and  sagacity  of  application,  and  a  steady  perseverance  of  pur 
suit,  proportioned  to  the  means  furnished  by  the  wilt  of  the 
founder,  and  to  the  greatness  and  simplicity  of  his  design,  as 
by  himself  declared,  '  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men/  it  is  no  extravagance  of  anticipation  to  declare 
that  his  name  will  be  hereafter  enrolled  among  the  eminent 
benefactors  of  mankind. 

"The  attainment  of  knowledge  is  the  high  and  exclusive 
attribute  of  man,  among  the  numberless  myriads  of  animated 
beings,  inhabitants  of  the  terrestrial  globe.  On  him  alone  is 
bestowed,  by  the  bounty  of  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  the 
power  and  the  capacity  of  acquiring  knowledge.  Knowledge 
is  the  attribute  of  his  nature  which  at  once  enables  him  to 
improve  his  condition  upon  earth,  and  to  prepare  him  for  the 
enjoyment  of  a  happier  existence  hereafter.  It  is  by  this 
attribute  that  man  discovers  his  own  nature  as  the  link  be 
tween  earth  and  heaven  ;  as  the  partaker  of  an  immortal  spirit ; 
as  created  for  higher  and  more  durable  ends  than  the  countless 
tribes  of  beings  which  people  the  earth,  the  ocean,  and  the 
air,  alternately  instinct  with  life,  and  melting  into  vapor,  or 
mouldering  into  dust. 

"  To  furnish  the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge  is,  therefore, 
the  greatest  benefit  that  can  be  conferred  upon  mankind.  It 
prolongs  life  itself,  and  enlarges  the  sphere  of  existence.  The 
earth  was  given  to  man  for  cultivation  —  to  the  improvement 
of  his  own  condition.  Whoever  increases  his  knowledge  mul 
tiplies  the  uses  to  which  he  is  enabled  to  turn  the  gift  of  his 
Creator  to  his  own  benefit,  and  partakes  in  some  degree  of 
that  goodness  which  is  the  highest  attribute  of  Omnipotence 
itself." 

"  If,  then,  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  under  the  smile  of 
an  approving  Providence,  and  by  the  faithful  and  permanent 
application  of  the  means  furnished  by  its  founder  to  the  pur 
pose  for  which  he  has  bestowed  them,  should  prove  effective 
to  their  promotion, —  if  they  should  contribute  essentially  to 
the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men, —  to  what 


266  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

higher  or  nobler  object  could  this  generous  and  splendid  dona 
tion  have  been  devoted  ?  " 

After  further  illustrating  the  renown  of  the  name 
of  Percy  from  the  historical  annals  of  England,  Mr. 
Adams  proceeds  to  urge  other  considerations,  from 
among  which  we  make  the  following  extracts : 

"  It  is,  then,  a  high  and  solemn  trust  which  the  testator  has 
committed  to  the  United  States  of  America  ;  and  its  execution 
devolves  upon  their  representatives  in  Congress  duties  of  no 
ordinary  importance.  In  adverting  to  the  character  of  the 
trustee  selected  by  the  testator  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  inten 
tions,  it  is  deemed  no  indulgence  of  unreasonable  pride  to 
mark  it  as  a  signal  manifestation  of  the  moral  eifect  of  our 
political  institutions  upon  the  opinions  arid  the  consequent 
action  of  the  wise  and  good  of  other  regions  and  of  distant 
climes,  even  upon  that  nation  from  whom  we  generally  boast 
our  descent." 

The  report  continues : 

"  In  the  commission  of  every  trust  there  is  an  implied  trib 
ute  to  the  integrity  and  intelligence  of  the  trustee,  and  there 
is  also  an  implied  call  for  the  faithful  exercise  of  those  proper 
ties  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  purposes  of  the  trust.  The  tribute 
and  the  call  acquire  additional  force  and  energy  when  the 
trust  is  committed  for  performance  after  the  decease  of  him 
by  whom  it  is  granted  ;  when  he  no  longer  lives  to  constrain 
the  effective  fulfilment  of  his  design.  The  magnitude  of  the 
trust,  and  the  extent  of  confidence  bestowed  in  the  committal 
of  it,  do  but  enlarge  and  aggravate  the  pressure  of  the  obliga 
tion  which  it  carries  with  it.  The  weight  of  duty  imposed  is 
proportioned  to  the  honor  conferred  by  confidence  without 
reserve.  Your  committee  are  fully  persuaded,  therefore,  that, 
with  a  grateful  sense  of  the  honor  conferred  by  the  testator 
upon  the  political  institutions  of  this  Union,  the  Congiess  of 
the  United  States,  in  accepting  the  bequest,  will  fee},  in  all  its 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  26T 

power  and  plenitude,  the  obligation  of  responding  to  the  con 
fidence  reposed  by  him,  with  all  the  fidelity,  disinterestedness, 
and  perseverance  of  exertion,  which  may  carry  into  effective 
execution  the  noble  purpose  of  an  endowment  for  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men.7' 

The  report  concludes  with  recommending  a  bill, 
which  passed  in  both  branches,  vesting  authority  in 
the  President  to  take  measures  to  prosecute,  in  the 
court  of  chancery  in  England,  the  right  of  the  United 
States  to  this  bequest. 


CHAPTER    X. 

MARTIN    VAN    BUREN    PRESIDENT    OF    THE  UNITED   STATES.  —  MR.  ADAMS* 

SPEECH    ON    TUB    CLAIMS    OF    THE    DEPOSIT    BANKS. HIS    LETTER    ON 

BOOKS    FOR    UNIVERSAL    READING. ORATION     AT    NEWBURYPORT. 

SPEECH    ON    THE    RIGHT    OF    PETITION. LETTER   TO    THE    MASSACHU 
SETTS     ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY. ADDRESS    TO    THE    INHABITANTS    OF 

HIS    DISTRICT. HIS  VIEWS  AS    TO    THE  APPLICATION    OF   THE    SMITH 
SONIAN    FUND. HIS    INTEREST    IN    THE    SCIENCE    OF    ASTRONOMY. 

LETTER  TO  THE  SECRETARY    OF  STATE   ON   AN  ASTRONOMICAL    OBSEKV- 

ATORY. LETTER    ON    THE   ABOLITION     OF  SLAVERY   IN    THE  DISTRICT 

OF     COLUMBIA. RESOLUTIONS     FOR     THE     LIMITING     OF    HEREDITARY 

SLAVERY. DISCOURSE     BEFORE    THE     NEW     YORK     HISTORICAL    SOCI- 

ETY. ADDRESS     ON     THE     SUBJECT     OF     EDUCATION. REMARKS    ON 

PHRENOLOGY  —  ON  THE  LICENSE  LAW  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. HE  ORGAN 
IZES   THE   HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 

ON  the  4th  of  March,  1837,  Martin  Van  Buren 
succeeded  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 
The  undeviating  zeal  with  which  he  had  supported 
all  the  plans  of  Andrew  Jackson,  especially  those  for 
dismembering  Mexico  and  annexing  Texas  to  the 
Union  as  a  slave  state,  had  proved,  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  slaveholders,  that  reliance  might  be  placed  on 
a  Northern  man  to  carry  into  effect  Southern  policy. 

On  the  14th  of  October  ensuing  Mr.  Adams  deliv 
ered  a  speech,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  a 
bill  for  "  adjusting  the  remaining  claims  upon  the  late 
deposit  banks."  When  this  bill  was  in  discussion  in 
a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  Mr.  Adams  asked  the 

(268) 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUIXCY    ADAMS.  269 

author  of  it  (Mr.  Cambreling,  of  New  York)  to  what 
banks  certain  words,  which  he  stated,  were  intended 
to  apply.  Cambreling  replied  that  Mr.  Adams  could 
answer  his  own  interrogatory  by  reading  the  bill  him 
self.  Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  to  state  several  other 
objections  to  the  terms  of  the  bill,  and  confessed  that 
his  faculties  of  comprehension  did  not  permit  him  to 
understand  its  phraseology.  Mr.  Cambreling  rose 
quickly,  and  remarked  that,  at  so  late  a  period  of 
the  session,  the  last  working  night,  he  could  not 
waste  his  time  in  discussing  nouns,  pronouns,  verbs, 
and  adverbs,  with  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts. 
Mr.  Adams  replied  :  "  Well,  sir,  as  language  is  com 
posed  of  nouns  and  pronouns,  verbs  and  adverbs,  when 
they  are  put  together  to  constitute  the  law  of  the  land 
the  meaning  of  them  may  surely  be  demanded  of  the 
legislator,  and  those  parts  of  speech  may  well  be  used 
for  such  a  purpose.  But,  if  such  explanation  be 
impossible,  it  certainly  ought  not  to  be  expected  that 
this  house  will  consent  to  pass  a  law,  composed  of 
nouns  and  pronouns,  verbs  and  adverbs,  which  the 
author  of  it  himself  does  not  understand."* 

"  On  which,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  I  took  the  floor, 
and,  in  a  speech  of  upwards  of  two  hours,  exposed  the 
true  character  of  the  bill,  and  of  that  to  which  it  is 
a  supplement,  in  all  their  iniquity  and^fraud.  I  made 
free  use  of  the  computations  I  had  drawn  from  the 
reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  minutely 
scrutinized  the  bill  in  all  its  parts,  and  denounced  the 
bargain  made  in  the  face  of  the  house  by  Cambreling 

*  JVi/es'  Weekly  Register,  New  Series,  vol.  m.,  pp.  167,  168. 


270  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

and  the  members  of  the  debtor  states,  procuring  their 
votes  for  the  postponement  of  the  bill  by  promising 
them  increased  indulgence  for  their  banks.  Cam- 
breling,  who  could  not  answer  me,  kept  up  a  con 
tinual  succession  of  interruptions  and  calls  to  order,  in 
despite  of  which  I  went  through,  with  constant  atten 
tion  from  the  house,  and  not  a  mark  of  impatience, 
except  from  Cambreling.  When  I  finished,  he  moved 
to  lay  the  bill  aside,  and  take  up  the  appropriation 
bill,  which  was  done." 

On  this  subject  the  editor  of  the  National  Register 
remarks  :  "  Mr.  Adams'  speech  upon  nouns,  pronouns, 
verbs,  and  adverbs,  displays  a  degree  of  patient  labor 
and  research,  which  must  convince  both  political 
friends  and  foes  that  neither  time  nor  circumstances 
have  impaired  the  strength  or  acuteness  of  his  mind, 
or  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  what  he  deems  to  be  the  inter 
ests  of  the  people.  Familiar  as  we  have  been,  for  a 
series  of  years,  with  minute  calculations  and  statis 
tical  details,  the  most  powerful  but  least  prized 
modes  of  exhibiting  results,  we  have  been  surprised 
and  delighted  at  the  clearness  and  force  with  which 
every  point  is  illustrated,  and  most  warmly  commend 
the  speech  to  all  who  wish  to  understand  the  questions 
on  which  it  treats/'* 

The  name  thus  given,  of  "  A  Speech  on  Nouns  and 
Pronouns,  Verbs  and  Adverbs,"  was  assumed  by  Mr. 
Adams,  and  adopted  as  its  title. 

On  the  22d  of  June,  1838,  Mr.  Adams  addressed  a 
letter  to  certain  young  men  of  Baltimore,  who  had 

*  JViVes'  Weekly  Register,  New  Scries,  vol.  in.,  p.  161. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  271 

written  to  him  a  very  respectful  letter,  asking  his 
advice  concerning  the  books  or  authors  he  would 
recommend.  After  a  general  expression  of  his  sense 
of  their  confidence,  and  regret  of  his  inability  fully  to 
recommend  any  list  of  books  or  authors  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  all,  he  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  Bible  as 
almost  the  only  book  deserving  such  universal  recom 
mendation,  and  as  the  book,  of  all  others,  to  be  read 
at  all  ages  and  in  all  conditions  of  human  life  —  to  be 
read  in  small  portions,  one  or  two  chapters  every  day, 
never  to  be  intermitted  unless  by  some  overruling 
necessity.  He  then  enters  at  large  into  the  advan 
tages  of  such  a  practice,  and  into  the  mode  of  con 
ducting  it,  and  proceeds  to  suggest  other  subsidiary 
studies  in  history,  biography,  and  poetry,  concluding 
with  the  advice  of  the  serving-man  to  a  young  student, 
in  Shakspeare  —  "  Study  what  you  most  affect."  * 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1837,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  at 
Newburyport,  at  the  request  of  its  inhabitants,  an 
oration  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  spirit 
of  which  may  be  discerned  in  the  following  extract : 

"Our  government  is  a  complicated  machine.  We  have 
twenty-six  states,  with  governments  administered  by  separate 
legislatures  and  executive  chiefs,  and  represented  by  equal 
numbers  in  the  general  Senate  of  the  nation.  This  organiza 
tion  is  an  anomaly  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  that 
which  distinguishes  us  from  all  other  nations,  ancient  and  mod 
ern  :  from  the  simple  monarchies  and  republics  of  Europe, 
and  from  the  confederacies  which  have  figured  in  any  age  upon 
the  face  of  the  globe.  The  seeds  of  this  complicated  machine 
were  all  sown  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  and  their 

*  JV'i'Zes'  Weekly  Register,  New  Series,  vol.  v.,  p.  219. 


272  MEMOIR     OP    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

fruits  can  never  be  eradicated  but  by  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union.  The  calculators  of  the  value  of  the  Union,  who  would 
palm  upon  you,  in  the  place  of  this  sublime  invention,  a  mere 
cluster  of  sovereign,  confederated  states,  do  but  sow  the  wind 
to  reap  the  whirlwind. 

"  One  lamentable  evidence  of  deep  degeneracy  from  the 
spirit  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  the  countenance 
which  has  been  occasionally  given,  in  various  parts  of  the 
Union,  to  this  doctrine ;  but  it  is  consolatory  to  know  that, 
whenever  it  has  been  distinctly  disclosed  to  the  people,  it  has 
been  rejected  by  them  with  pointed  reprobation.  It  has, 
indeed,  presented  itself  in  its  most  malignant  form  in  that 
portion  of  the  Union  the  civil  institutions  of  which  are  most 
infected  by  the  gangrene  of  slavery.  The  inconsistency  of 
the  institution  of  domestic  slavery  with  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  seen  and  lamented  by  all 
the  Southern  patriots  of  the  Revolution  ;  by  no  one  with 
deeper  and  more  unalterable  conviction  than  by  the  author 
of  the  Declaration  himself.  No  insincerity  or  hypocrisy  can 
fairly  be  laid  to  their  charge.  Never,  from  their  lips,  was 
heard  one  syllable  of  attempt  to  justify  the  institution  of  slav 
ery.  They  universally  considered  it  as  a  reproach  fastened 
upon  them  by  the  unnatural  step-mother  country ;  and  they 
saw  that,  before  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  slavery,  in  common  with  every  other  mode  of 
oppression,  was  destined  sooner  or  later  to  be  banished  from 
the  earth.  Such  was  the  undoubting  conviction  of  Jefferson 
to  his  dying  day.  In  the  memoir  of  his  life,  written  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven,  he  gave  to  his  countrymen  the  solemn  and 
emphatic  warning  that  the  day  was  not  distant  when  they 
must  hear  and  adopt  the  general  emancipation  of  their  slaves. 
'  Nothing  is  more  certainly  written/  said  he,  '  in  the  book  of 
fate,  than  that  these  people  are  to  be  free/  My  countrymen  ! 
it  is  written  in  a  better  volume  than  the  book  of  fate ;  it  is 
written  in  the  laws  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's  God. 

"We  are  told,  indeed,  by  the  learned  doctors  of  the  nullifi 
cation  school,  that  color  operates  as  a  forfeiture  of  the  rights 
of  human  nature  :  that  a  dark  skin  turns  a  man  into  a  chattel ; 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  273 

that  crispy  hair  transforms  a  human  being  into  a  four-footed 
beast.  The  master-priest  informs  you  that  slavery  is  conse 
crated  and  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament :  that  Ham  was  the  father  of  Canaan,  and  all 
his  posterity  were  doomed,  by  his  own  father,  to  be  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  the  descendants  of  Shem 
and  Japhet ;  that  the  native  Americans  of  African  descent  are 
the  children  of  Ham,  with  the  curse  of  Noah  still  fastened 
upon  them ;  and  the  native  Americans  of  European  descent 
are  children  of  Japhet,  pure  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  born  to  com 
mand,  and  to  live  by  the  sweat  of  another's  brow.  The  mas 
ter-philosopher  teaches  you  that  slavery  is  no  curse,  but  a 
blessing!  that  Providence  —  Providence!  —  has  so  ordered  it 
that  this  country  should  be  inhabited  by  two  races  of  men,  — 
one  born  to  wield  the  scourge,  and  the  other  to  bear  the  rec 
ord  of  its  stripes  upon  his  back ;  one  to  earn,  through  a  toil 
some  life,  the  other's  bread,  and  to  feed  him  on  a  bed  of  roses  ; 
that  slavery  is  the  guardian  and  promoter  of  wisdom  and 
virtue ;  that  the  slave,  by  laboring  for  another's  enjoyment, 
learns  disinterestedness  and  humility ;  that  the  master,  nur 
tured,  clothed,  and  sheltered,  by  another's  toils,  learns  to  be 
generous  and  grateful  to  the  slave,  and  sometimes  to  feel  for 
him  as  a  father  for  his  child  ;  that,  released  from  the  necessity 
of  supplying  his  own  wants,  he  acquires  opportunity  of  lei 
sure  to  improve  his  mind,  to  purify  his  heart,  to  cultivate  his 
taste  ;  that  he  has  time  on  his  hands  to  plunge  into  the  depths 
of  philosophy,  and  to  soar  to  the  clear  empyrean  of  seraphic 
morality.  The  master-statesman  —  ay,  the  statesman  in  the 
land  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in  the  halls  of 
national  legislation,  with  the  muse  of  history  recording  his 
words  as  they  drop  from  his  lips,  with  the  colossal  figure  of 
American  Liberty  leaning  on  a  column  entwined  with  tho 
emblem  of  eternity  over  his  head,  with  the  forms  of  Washing 
ton  and  Lafayette  speaking  to  him  from  the  canvas  —  turns  to 
the  image  of  the  father  of  his  country,  and,  forgetting  that  the 
last  act  of  his  life  was  to  emancipate  his  slaves,  to  bolster  up 
the  cause  of  slavery  says,  '  That  man  was  a  slaveholder/ 
"  My  countrymen  !  these  are  the  tenets  of  the  modern  nui- 
18 


274      MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 

lification  school.  Can  you  wonder  that  they  shrink  from  the 
light  of  free  discussion  — that  they  skulk  from  the  grasp  of 
freedom  ai:d  of  truth  ?  Is  there  among  you  one  who  hear* 
me,  solicitous  above  all  things  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  so  truly  dear  to  us  —  of  that  Union  proclaimed  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  —  of  that  Union  never  to  be 
divided  by  any  act  whatever  —  and  who  dreads  that  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  merits  of  slavery  will  endanger  the  continuance 
of  the  Union  ?  Let  him  discard  his  terrors,  arid  be  assured 
that  they  are  no  other  than  the  phantom  fears  of  nullification  ; 
that,  while  doctrines  like  these  are  taught  in  her  schools  of 
philosophy,  preached  in  her  pulpits,  and  avowed  in  her  legis 
lative  councils,  the  free,  unrestrained  discussion  of  the  rights 
and  wrongs  of  slavery,  far  from  endangering  the  Union  of 
these  states,  is  the  only  condition  upon  which  that  Union  can 
be  preserved  and  perpetuated.  What !  are  you  to  be  told, 
with  one  breath,  that  the  transcendent  glory  of  this  day  con 
sists  in  the  proclamation  that  all  lawful  government  is  founded 
on  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  and,  with  the  next  breath, 
that  you  must  not  whisper  this  truth  to  the  winds,  lest  they 
should  taint  the  atmosphere  with  freedom,  and  kindle  the 
flame  of  insurrection  ?  Are  you  to  bless  the  earth  beneath 
your  feet  because  she  spurns  the  footsteps  of  a  slave,  and  then 
to  choke  the  utterance  of  your  voice  lest  the  sound  of  liberty 
should  be  reechoed  from  the  palmetto-groves,  mingled  with 
the  discordant  notes  of  disunion  ?  No !  no  !  Freedom  of 
speech  is  the  only  safety-valve  which,  under  the  high  pressure 
of  slavery,  can  preserve  your  political  boiler  from  a  fearful 
and  fatal  explosion.  Let  it  be  admitted  that  slavery  is  an 
institution  of  internal  police,  exclusively  subject  to  the  sep 
arate  jurisdiction  of  the  states  where  it  is  cherished  as  a  bless 
ing,  or  tolerated  as  an  evil  as  yet  irremediable.  But  let  that 
slavery  which  intrenches  herself  within  the  walls  of  her  own 
impregnable  fortress  not  sally  forth  to  conquest  over  the 
domain  of  freedom.  Intrude  not  beyond  the  hallowed  bounds 
of  oppression  ;  but,  if  you  have  by  solemn  compact  doomed 
your  ears  to  hear  the  distant  clanking  of  the  chain,  let  not  the 
fetters  of  the  slave  be  forged  afresh  upon  your  own  soil ;  far 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  275 

less  permit  them  to  be  riveted  upon  your  own  feet.  Quench 
not  the  spirit  of  freedom.  Let  it  go  forth,  not  in  panoply  of 
fleshly  wisdom,  but  with  the  p.romise  of  peace,  and  the  voice 
of  persuasion,  clad  in  the  whole  armor  of  truth,  conquering 
and  to  conquer." 

In  July,  1838,  Mr.  Adams  published  a  speech  "  on 
the  right  of  the  people,  men  and  women,  to  petition  ; 
on  the  freedom  of  speech  and  debate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  ;  on  the  resolu 
tions  of  seven  State  Legislatures,  and  on  the  petitions 
of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  petitioners,  rela 
tive  to  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union;"  the 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  on  these 
subjects  being  under  the  consideration  of  the  House. 
In  this  publication  he  states  and  analyzes  the  course 
of  that  "  conspiracy  for  the  dismemberment  of  Mexico, 
the  remstitution  of  slavery  in  the  dismembered  portion 
of  that  republic,  and  the  acquisition,  by  purchase  or 
by  conquest,  of  the  territory,  to  sustain,  spread,  and 
perpetuate,  the  moral  and  religious  blessing  of  slavery 
in  this  Union  ;"  and  which  he  declares  to  be  in  the  full 
tide  of  successful  experiment.  But  a  few  only  of  the 
topics  illustrated  in  this  publication,  which  expanded 
into  a  pamphlet  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  octavo 
pages,  can  here  be  touched.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  history 
of  the  disgraceful  proceedings  by  which  that  conspir 
acy  effected  its  purpose. 

Mr.  Adams  inquired  of  the  committee  whether  they 
had  given  as  much  as  five  minutes*  consideration  to  the 
resolutions  of  the  Legislatures,  and  the  very  numerous 
petitions  of  individuals,  which  had  been  referred  to 


276  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

them.  One  of  the  committee,  Hugh  S.  Legare,  of 
South  Carolina,  answered,  he  had  not  read  the  papers, 
nor  looked  into  one  of  them.  Mr.  Adams  exclaimed, 
"  I  denounce,  in  the  face  of  the  country,  the  proceed 
ing  of  the  committee,  in  reporting  upon  papers  referred 
to  them,  without  looking  into  any  one  of  them,  as 
utterly  incorrect.  I  assert,  as  a  great  general  princi 
ple,  that  when  resolutions  from  Legislatures  of  states, 
and  petitions  from  a  vast  multitude  of  our  fellow- 
citizens,  on  a  subject  of  deep,  vital  importance  to  the 
country,  are  referred  to  a  committee  of  this  house,  if 
that  committee  make  up  an  opinion  without  looking 
into  such  resolutions  and  memorials,  the  committee 
betray  their  trust  to  their  constituents  and  this  house. 
I  give  this  out  to  the  nation." 

A  long  and  exciting  debate,  lasting  from  the  16th 
of  June  to  the  7th  of  July,  on  the  report  of  the  com 
mittee  relative  to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  ensued  ; 
the  heat  and  violence  of  which  were  chiefly  directed 
upon  Mr.  Adams. 

One  of  the  topics  agitated  during  this  debate  arose 
upon  a  speech  of  Mr.  Howard,  of  Maryland.  Among 
the  petitions  against  the  annexation  of  Texas  were 
many  signed  by  women.  On  these  Mr.  Howard  said, 
he  always  felt  a  regret  when  petitions  thus  signed 
were  presented  to  the  house,  relating  to  political  sub 
jects.  He  thought  these  females  could  have  a  suffi 
cient  field  for  the  exercise  of  their  influence  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  to  their  fathers,  their  hus 
bands,  or  their  children,  cheering  the  domestic  circle, 
and  shedding  over  it  the  mild  radiance  of  the  social 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  277 

virtues,  instead  of  rushing  into  the  fierce  struggles  of 
political  life.  He  considered  it  discreditable,  not  only 
to  their  particular  section  of  country,  but  also  to  the 
national  character. 

Mr.  Adams  immediately  entered  into  a  long  and 
animated  defence  of  the  right  of  petition  by  women  : 
in  the  course  of  which  he  asked  "  whether  women,  by 
petitioning  this  house  in  favor  of  suffering  and  dis 
tress,  perform  an  office  '  discreditable '  to  themselves, 
to  the  section  of  the  country  where  they  reside,  and  to 
this  nation.  The  gentleman  says  that  women  have  no 
right  to  petition  Congress  on  political  subjects.  Why  ? 
Sir,  what  does  the  gentleman  understand  by  i  politi 
cal  subjects '  ?  Everything  in  which  the  house  has 
an  agency  —  everything  which  relates  to  peace  and 
relates  to  war,  or  to  any  other  of  the  great  interests 
of  society.  Are  women  to  have  no  opinions  or  actions 
on  subjects  relating  to  the  general  welfare?  Where 
did  the  gentleman  get  this  principle  ?  Did  he  find  it 
in  sacred  history  —  in  the  language  of  Miriam  the 
prophetess,  in  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  sublime 
songs  of  triumph  that  ever  met  the  human  eye  or  ear  ? 
Did  the  gentleman  never  hear  of  Deborah,  to  whom 
the  children  of  Israel  came  up  for  judgment  ?  Has  he 
forgotten  the  deed  of  Jael,  who  slew  the  dreaded 
enemy  of  her  country?  Has  he  forgotten  Esther, 
who,  by  HER  PETITION,  saved  her  people  and  her  coun 
try?  Sir,  I  might  go  through  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
history  of  the  Jews  to  the  advent  of  our  Saviour,  and 
find  innumerable  examples  of  women,  who  not  only 
took  an  active  part  in  the  politics  of  their  times,  but 


278  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

who  are  held  up  with  honor  to  posterity  for  doing  so 
Our  Saviour  himself,  while  on  earth,  performed  that 
most  stupendous  miracle,  the  raising  of  Lazarus  from 
the  dead,  at  the  petition  of  a  woman  !  To  go  from 
sacred  history  to  profane,  does  the  gentleman  there 
find  it  '  discreditable  '  for  women  to  take  any  interest 
or  any  part  in  political  affairs  ?  In  the  history  of 
Greece,  let  him  read  and  examine  the  character  of 
Aspasia,  in  a  country  in  which  the  character  and  con 
duct  of  women  were  more  restricted  than  in  any  mod 
ern  nation,  save  among  the  Turks.  Has  he  forgotten 
that  Spartan  mother,  who  said  to  her  son,  when  going 
out  to  battle,  i  My  son,  come  back  to  me  with  thy 
shield,  or  upon  thy  shield '  ?  Does  he  not  remember 
Clcelia  and  her  hundred  companions,  who  swam  across 
the  river,  under  a  shower  of  darts,  escaping  from  Por- 
senna  ?  Has  he  forgotten  Cornelia,  the  mother  of  the 
Gracchi,  who  declared  that  her  children  were  her  jew 
els  ?  And  why  ?  Because  they  were  the  champions 
of  freedom.  Does  he  not  remember  Portia,  the  wife 
of  Brutus  and  daughter  of  Cato,  and  in  what  terms 
she  is  represented  in  the  history  of  Rome  ?  Has  he 
not  read  of  Arria,  who,  under  imperial  despotism, 
when  her  husband  was  condemned  to  die  by  a  tyrant, 
plunged  the  sword  into  her  own  bosom,  and,  handing 
it  to  her  husband,  said,  '  Take  it,  Psetus,  it  does  not 
hurt,'  and  expired? 

1  'To  come  to  a  later  period, — what  says  the  his 
tory  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors?  To  say  nothing 
of  Boadicea,  the  British  heroine  in  the  time  of  the 
Coesars,  what  name  is  more  illustrious  than  that  of 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  279 

Elizabeth?  Or,  if  he  will  go  to  the  Continent,  will 
he  not  find  the  names  of  Maria  Theresa  of  Hungary, 
the  two  Catharines  of  Eussia,  and  of  Isabella  of  Cas 
tile,  the  patroness  of  Columbus,  the  discoverer  in 
substance  of  this  hemisphere,  for  without  her  that  dis 
covery  would  not  have  been  made?  Did  she  bring 
6  discredit '  on  her  sex  by  mingling  in  politics  ?  To 
come  nearer  home,  —  what  were  the  women  of  the 
United  States  in  the  struggle  of  the  Revolution  ?  Or 
what  would  the  men  have  been  but  for  the  influence 
of  the  women  of  that  day  ?  Were  they  devoted  ex 
clusively  to  the  duties  and  enjoyments  of  the  fire 
side?  Take,  for  example,  the  ladies  of  Philadelphia." 

Mr.  Adams  here  read  a  long  extract  from  Judge 
Johnson's  life  of  General  Greene,  relating  that  during 
the  Revolutionary  War  a  call  came  from  General 
Washington  stating  that  the  troops  were  destitute  of 
shirts,  and  of  many  indispensable  articles  of  clothing. 
"  And  from  whence,"  writes  Judge  Johnson,  "  did 
relief  arrive,  at  last?  From  the  heart  where  patriot 
ism  erects  her  favorite  shrine,  and  from  the  hand 
which  is  seldom  withdrawn  when  the  soldier  solicits. 
The  ladies  of  Philadelphia  immortalized  themselves  by 
commencing  the  generous  work,  and  it  was  a  work  too 
grateful  to  the  American  fair  not  to  be  followed  up 
with  zeal  and  alacrity." 

Mr.  Adams  then  read  a  long  quotation  from  Dr. 
Ramsay's  history  of  South  Carolina,  "  which  speaks," 
said  he,  "  trumpet- tongued,  of  the  daring  and  in 
trepid  spirit  of  patriotism  burning  in  the  bosoms  of 
the  ladies  of  that  state."  After  reading  an  extract 


280     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

from  this  history,  Mr.  Adams  thus  comments  upon 
it:  "  Politics,  sir!  'rushing  into  the  vortex  of  poli 
tics  ! ' — glorying  in  being  called  rebel  ladies ;  refusing 
to  attend  balls  and  entertainments,  but  crowding  to 
the  prison-ships !  Mark  this,  and  remember  it  was 
done  with  no  small  danger  to  their  own  persons,  and 
to  the  safety  of  their  families.  But  it  manifested 
the  spirit  by  which  they  were  animated ;  and,  sir,  is 
that  spirit  to  be  charged  here,  in  this  hall  where  we 
are  sitting,  as  being  '  discreditable  '  to  our  country's 
name  ?  Shall  it  be  said  that  such  conduct  was  a 
national  reproach,  because  it  was  the  conduct  of 
women  who  left  '  their  domestic  concerns,  and  rushed 
into  the  vortex  of  politics '  ?  Sir,  these  women  did 
more;  they  petitioned  —  yes,  they  petitioned  —  and 
that  in  a  matter  of  politics.  It  was  for  the  life  of 
Haym." 

In  connection  with  this  eloquent  defence  of  the 
right  of  women  to  interfere  in  politics,  of  which  the 
above  extracts  are  but  an  outline,  Mr.  Adams  thus 
applies  the  result  to  the  particular  subject  of  contro 
versy  : 

"  The  broad  principle  is  morally  wrong,  vicious,  and  the  very 
reverse  of  that  which  ought  to  prevail.  Why  does  it  follow 
that  women  are  fitted  for  nothing  but  the  cares  of  domestic 
life :  for  bearing  children,  and  cooking  the  food  of  a  family ; 
devoting  all  their  time  to  the  domestic  circle, — to  promoting 
the  immediate  personal  comfort  of  their  husbands,  brothers, 
and  sons  ?  Observe,  sir,  the  point  of  departure  between  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  and  myself.  I  admit  that  it  is  their 
duty  to  attend  to  these  things.  I  subscribe  fully  to  the  ele 
gant  compliment  passed  by  him  upon  those  members  of  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  281 

female  sex  who  devote  their  time  to  these  duties.  But  I  say 
that  the  correct  principle  is  that  women  are  not  only  justified, 
but  exhibit  the  most  exalted  virtue,  when  they  do  depart  from 
the  domestic  circle,  and  enter  on  the  concerns  of  their  coun 
try,  of  humanity,  and  of  their  God.  The  mere  departure  of 
woman  from  the  duties  of  the  domestic  circle,  far  from  being 
a  reproach  to  her,  is  a  virtue  of  the  highest  order,  when  it  is 
done  from  purity  of  motive,  by  appropriate  means,  and  towards 
a  virtuous  purpose.  There  is  the  true  distinction.  The  motive 
must  be  pure,  the  means  appropriate,  and  the  purpose  good  ; 
and  I  say  that  woman,  by  the  discharge  of  such  duties,  has 
manifested  a  virtue  which  is  even  above  the  virtues  of  man 
kind,  and  approaches  to  a  superior  nature.  That  is  the  prin 
ciple  I  maintain,  and  which  the  chairman  of  the  committee  has 
to  refute,  if  he  applies  the  position  he  has  taken  to  the  moth 
ers,  the  sisters,  and  the  daughters,  of  the  men  of  my  district 
who  voted  to  send  me  here.  Now,  I  aver  further,  that,  in  the 
instance  to  which  his  observation  refers,  namely,  in  the  act  of 
petitioning  against  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union,  the 
motive  was  pure,  the  means  appropriate,  and  the  purpose  vir 
tuous,  in  the  highest  degree.  As  an  evident  proof  of  this,  I 
recur  to  the  particular  petition  from  which  this  debate  took  its 
rise,  namely,  to  the  first  petition  I  presented  here  against  the 
annexation  —  a  petition  consisting  of  three  lines,  and  signed 
by  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  women  of  Plymouth,  a  prin 
cipal  town  in  my  own  district.  Their  words  are  : 

"'The  undersigned,  women  of  Plymouth  (Mass.),  thor 
oughly  aware  of  the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  and  the  consequent 
impolicy  and  disastrous  tendency  of  its  extension  in  our  coun 
try,  do  most  respectfully  remonstrate,  with  all  our  souls, 
against  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States  as  a 
slaveholding  territory.' 

"  These  are  the  words  of  their  memorial ;  and  I  say  that,  in 
presenting  it  here,  their  motive  was  pure,  and  of  the  highest 
order  of  purity.  They  petitioned  under  a  conviction  that  the 
consequence  of  the  annexation  would  be  the  advancement  of 
that  which  is  sin  in  the  sight  of  God,  namely,  slavery.  I  say, 
further,  that  the  means  were  appropriate,  because  it  is  Con- 


282     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

gress  who  must  decide  on  the  question  ;  and  therefore  it  is 
proper  that  they  should  petition  Congress,  if  they  wish  to 
prevent  the  annexation.  And  I  say,  in  the  third  place,  that 
the  end  was  virtuous,  pure,  and  of  the  most  exalted  charac 
ter,  namely,  to  prevent  the  perpetuation  and  spread  of  slavery 
throughout  America.  I  say,  moreover,  that  I  subscribe,  in 
my  own  person,  to  every  word  the  petition  contains.  I  do 
believe  slavery  to  be  a  sin  before  God  ;  and  that  is  the  reason, 
and  the  only  insurmountable  reason,  why  we  should  refuse  to 
annex  Texas  to  this  Union." 

On  the  28th  July,  1838,  to  an  invitation  from  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society  to  attend  their 
celebration  of  the  anniversary  of  the  day  upon  which 
slavery  was  abolished  in  the  colonial  possessions  of 
Great  Britain,  ,Mr.  Adams  responded  : 

"  It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  this  invitation ; 
but  my  health  is  not  very  firm.  My  voice  has  been  affected 
by  the  intense  heat  of  the  season  ;  and  a  multiplicity  of  appli 
cations,  from  societies  political  and  literary,  to  attend  and 
address  their  meetings,  have  imposed  upon  me  the  necessity 
of  pleading  the  privilege  of  my  years,  and  declining  them  all. 

"  I  rejoice  that  the  defence  of  the  cause  of  human  freedom 
is  falling  into  younger  and  more  vigorous  hands.  That;  in 
three-score  years  from  the  day  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  its  self-evident  truths  should  be  yet  struggling  for 
existence  against  the  degeneracy  of  an  age  pampered  with 
prosperity,  and  languishing  into  servitude,  is  a  melancholy 
truth,  from  which  I  should  in  vain  attempt  to  shut  my  eyes. 
But  the  summons  has  gone  forth.  The  youthful  champions  of 
the  rights'of  human  nature  have  buckled  and  are  buckling  on 
their  armor ;  and  the  scourging  overseer,  and  the  lynching 
lawyer,  and  the  servile  sophist,  and  the  faithless  scribe,  and 
the  priestly  parasite,  will  vanish  before  them  like  Satan 
touched  by  the  spear  of  Ithuriel.  I  live  in  the  faith  and  hope 
of  the  progressive  advancement  of  Christian  liberty,  and 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  283 

expect  to  abide  by  the  same  in  death.  You  have  a  glorious 
though  arduous  career  before  you  ;  and  it  is  among  the  conso 
lations  of  my  last  days  that  I  am  able  to  cheer  you  in  the 
pursuit,  and  exhort  you  to  be  steadfast  and  immovable  in  it. 
So  shall  you  not  fail,  whatever  may  betide,  to  reap  a  rich 
reward  in  the  blessing  of  him  that  is  ready  to  perish,  upon 
your  soul." 

In  August,  1838,  Mr.  Adams  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  inhabitants  of  his  district,  in  which,  after  stat 
ing  what  had  been  done  on  the  same  subject  by  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  and  other  states,  he  pro 
ceeded  to  recapitulate  the  wrongs  which  had  been 
done  to  the  colored  races  of  Africa  on  this  conti 
nent,  "  which  have  indeed  been  of  long  standing,  but 
which  in  these  latter  days  have  been  aggravated 
beyond  all  measure.  To  repair  the  injustice  of  our 
fathers  to  thesj_rj££S-Jmd-  b^en,  from  the  clay  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  conscience  of  the 
good  and  the  counsel  of  the  wise  rulers  of  the  land. 
Washington,  by  his  own  example  in  the  testamentary 
disposal  of  his  property, — Jefferson,  by  the  unhesi 
tating  convictions  of  his  own  mind,,  by  unanswerable 
argument  and  eloquent  persuasion,  addressed  almost' 
incessantly,  throughout  a  long  life,  to  the  reason  and 
feelings  of  his  countrymen,  —  had  done  homage  to  the 
self-evident  principles  which  the  nation,  at  her  birth, 
had  been  the  first  to  proclaim.  _  Emancipation,  uni 
versal  emancipation,  was  the  -lesson  they  had  urged 
on  their  contemporaries,  and  held  forth  as  transcend 
ent  and  irremissible  duties  to  their  children  of  the 
present  age.  Instead  of  which,  what  have  we  seen? 


284  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Communities  of  slaveholding  braggarts,  setting  at 
defiance  the  laws  of  nature  and  nature's  God,  restor 
ing  slavery  where  it  had  been  extinguished,  and  vainly 
dreaming  to  make  it  eternal ;  forming,  in  the  sacred 
name  of  liberty,  constitutions  of  government  inter 
dicting  to  the  legislative  authority  itself  that  most 
blessed  of  human  powers,  the  power  of  giving  lib 
erty  to  the  slave  !  Governors  of  states  urging  japon 
their  Legislatures  to  make  the  exercise  of  the  freedom 
of  speech  to  propagate  the  right  of  the  slave  to  free 
dom  felony,  without  benefit  of  clergy  !  Ministers  of 
the  gospel,  like  the  priest  in  the  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  coming  and  looking  at  the  bleeding  vic 
tim  of  the  highway  robber,  and  passing  on  the  other 
side  ;  or,  baser  still,  perverting  the  pages  of  the 
sacred  volume  to  turn  into  a  code  of  slavery  the  very 
word-  of  God  !  Philosophers,  like  the  Sophists  of 
ancient  Greece,  pulverized  by  the  sober  sense  of  Soc 
rates,  elaborating  theories  of  moral  slavery  from  the 
alembic  of  a  sugar  plantation,  and  vaporing  about  lofty 
sentiments  and  generous  benevolence  to  be  learnt  from 
the  hereditary  bondage  of  man  to  man  !  Infuriated 
mobs,  murdering  the  peaceful  ministers  of  Christ  for 
the  purpose  of  extinguishing  the  light  of  a  printing- 
press,  and  burning  with  unhallowed  fire  the  hall  of 
freedom,  the  orphan's  school,  and  the  church  devoted 
to  the  worship  of  God  !  And,  last  of 'all,  both  houses 
of  Congress  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  petitioners,  and  quibbling  away  their  duty  to  read, 
to  listen,  and  consider,  in  doubtful  disputations 
whether  they  shall  receive,  or,  receiving,  refuse  to 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  2S>r. 

read  or  hear,  the  complaints  and  prayers  of  their 
fellow-citizens  and  fellow-men  !  " 

Mr.  Adams  proceeds,  in  a  like  spirit  of  eloquent 
plainness,  to  denounce  the  violation  of  that  beneficent 
change  which  both  Washington  and  Jefferson  had  de 
vised  for  the  red  man  of  the  forest,  and  had  assured  to 
him  by  solemn  treaties  pledging  the  faith  of  the  nation, 
and  by  laws  interdicting  by  severe  penalties  the  intru 
sion  of  the  white  man  on  his  domain.  "  In  contempt 
of  those  treaties/'  said  he,  "and  in  defiance  of  those 
laws,  the  sovereign  State  of  Georgia  had  extended  her 
jurisdiction  over  these  Indian  lands,  and  lavished,  in 
lottery- tickets  to  her  people,  the  growing  harvests,  the 
cultivated  fields,  and  furnished  dwellings,  of  the  Cher 
okee,  setting  at  naught  the  solemn  adjudication  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  pronouncing  this 
licensed  robbery  alike  lawless  and  unconstitutional." 
He  then  proceeds,  in  a  strain  of  severe  animadversion, 
to  reprobate  the  conduct  of  the  Executive  administra 
tion,  in  "  truckling  to  these  usurpations  of  Georgia  ;" 
and  reviews  that  of  Congress,  in  refusing  "the  peti 
tions  of  fifteen  thousand  of  these  cheated  and  plun 
dered  people,"  when  thousands  of  our  own  citizens 
joined  in  their  supplications. 

In  this  letter  Mr.  Adams  states  and  explains  the 
origin  of  the  treaty  of  peace  and  alliance  between 
Southern  nullification  and  Northern  pro-slavery,  and 
the  nature  and  consequences  of  that  alliance.  In  the 
course  of  his  illustrations  on  this  subject  he  repels, 
with  an  irresistible  power  of  argument,  the  attempt 
of  the  slaveholder  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord  among 


286  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  freemen  of  the  North.  "The  condition  of  mas 
ter  and  slave  is,"  he  considered,  "by  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  God,  a  state  of  perpetual,  inextinguish 
able  war.  The  slaveholder,  deeply  conscious  of  this, 
soothes  his  soul  by  sophistical  reasonings  into  a  belief 
that  this  same  war  still  exists  in  free  communities 
between  the  capitalist  and  free  labor."  The  fallacy 
and  falsehood  of  this  theory  he  analyzes  and  exposes, 
and  proceeds  to  state  and  reason  upon  various  meas 
ures  of  Congress  connected  with  these  topics,  at  great 
length,  and  with  laborious  elucidation.* 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1838,  Mr.  Adams  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  district  he  represented  in  Congress,  in 
which  he  touched  on  those  points  of  national  policy 
which  most  deeply  affected  his  mind.  Among  many 
remarks  worthy  of  anxious  thought,  which  subsequent 
events  have  confirmed  and  are  confirming,  he  traces 
the  "  smothering  for  nearly  three  years,  in  legislative 
halls,  the  right  of  petition  and  freedom  of  debate," 
to  the  influence  of  slavery,  "  w^hich  shrinks,  and  will 
shrink,  from  the  eye  of  day.  Northern  subserviency 
to  Southern  dictation  is  the  price  paid  by  a  Northern 
administration  for  Southern  support.  The  people  of 
the  North  still  support  by  their  suffrages  the  men  who 
have  truckled  to  Southern  domination.  I  believe  it 
impossible  that  this  total  subversion  of  every  principle 
of  liberty  should  be  much  longer  submitted  to  by  the 
people  of  the  free  states  of  this  Union.  But  their 
fate  is  in  their  own  hands.  If  they  choose  to  be  rep 

*  For  this  letter  see  Wiles'  Weekly  Register,  New  Series,  vol.  v.,  p.  56. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS.  287 

resented  by  slaves,  they  will  find  servility  enough  to 
represent  and  betray  them.  The  suspension  of  the 
right  of  petition,  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of 
debate,  the  thirst  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the 
war-whoop  of  two  successive  Presidents  against  Mex 
ico,  are  all  but  varied  symptoms  of  a  deadly  disease 
seated  in  the  marrow  of  our  bones,  and  that  deadly 
disease  is  slavery." 

When,  in  the  latter  part  of  June,  1838,  news  of 
the  success  of  Mr.  Rush  in  obtaining  the  Smithsonian 
bequest,  and  information  that  he  had  already  received 
on  account  of  it  more  than  half  a  million  of  dollars, 
were  announced  to  the  public,  Mr.  Adams  lost  no  time 
in  endeavoring  to  give  a  right  direction  to  the  govern 
ment  on  the  subject.  He  immediately  waited  upon 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and,  in  a  conver 
sation  of  two  hours,  explained  the  views  he  entertained 
in  regard  to  the  application  of  that  fund,  and  entreated 
him  to  have  a  plan  prepared,  to  recommend  to  Con 
gress,  for  the  foundation  of  the  institution,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  next  session.  "  I  suggested  to 

O  O 

him,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  the  establishment  of  an 
Astronomical  Observatory,  with  a  salary  for  an  astron 
omer  and  assistant,  for  nightly  observations  and  peri 
odical  publications  ;  annual  courses  of  lectures  upon 
the  natural,  moral,  and  political  sciences.  Above  all, 
no  jobbing,  no  sinecure,  no  monkish  stalls  for  lazy 
idlers.  I  urged  the  deep  responsibility  of  the  nation 
to  the  world  and  to  all  posterity  worthily  to  fulfil  the 
great  object  of  the  testator.  I  only  lamented  my  ina 
bility  to  communicate  half  the  solicitude  with  which 


288  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

my  heart  is  on  this  subject  full,  and  the  sluggishness 
with  which  I  failed  properly  to  pursue  it."  "Mr.  Van 
Buren,"  Mr.  Adams  added,  "received  all  this  with 
complacency  and  apparent  concurrence  of  opinion, 
seemed  favorably  disposed  to  my  views  and  willing  to 
do  right,  and  asked  me  to  name  any  person  whom  I 
thought  might  be  usefully  consulted." 

The  phenomena  of  the  heavens  were  constantly 
observed  and  often  recorded  by  Mr.  Adams.  Thus, 
on  the  3d  of  October,  1838,  he  writes:  "As  the 
clock  struck  five  this  morning,  I  saw  the  planets  Venus 
and  Mercury  in  conjunction,  Mercury  being  about  two 
thirds  of  a  sun's  disk  below  and  northward  of  Venus. 
Three  quarters  of  an  hour  later  Mercury  was  barely 
perceptible,  and  five  minutes  after  could  not  be  traced 
by  my  naked  eye,  Venus  being  for  ten  minutes  longer 
visible.  I  ascertained,  therefore,  that,  in  the  clear 
sky  of  this  latitude,  Mercury,  at  his  greatest  elonga 
tion  from  the  sun,  may  be  seen  by  a  very  imperfect 
naked  eye,  in  the  morning  twilight,  for  the  space  of 
one  hour.  I  observed,  also,  the  rapidity  of  his  move 
ments,  by  the  diminished  distance  between  these  plan 
ets  since  the  day  before  yesterday." 

In  the  following  November  he  again  writes  :  "To 
make  observations  on  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  has  been,  for  a  great  portion  of  my  life,  a 
pleasure  of  gratified  curiosity,  of  ever-returning  won 
der,  and  of  reverence  for  the  great  Creator  and  Mover 
of  these  innumerable  worlds.  There  is  something  of 
awful  enjoyment  in  observing  the  rising  and  the  setting 
of  the  sun.  That  flashing  beam  of  his  first  appearing 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  289 

upon  the  horizon ;  that  sinking  of  the  last  ray  beneath 
it;  that  perpetual  revolution  of  the  Great  and  Little 
Bear  around  the  pole ;  that  rising  of  the  whole  con 
stellation  of  Orion  from  the  horizon  to  the  perpendic 
ular  position,  and  his  ride  through  the  heavens  with 
his  belt,  his  nebulous  sword,  and  his  four  corner  stars 
of  the  first  magnitude,  are  sources  of  delight  which 
never  tire.  Even  the  optical  delusion,  by  which  the 
motion  of  the  earth  from  west  to  east  appears  to  the 
eye  as  the  movement  of  the  whole  firmament  from  east 
to  west,  swells  the  conception  of  magnificence  to  the 
incomprehensible  infinite.'* 

When  one  of  his  friends  expressed  a  hope  that  we 
should  hereafter  know  more  of  the  brilliant  stars 
around  us,  Mr.  Adams  replied  :  "I  trust  so.  I  can 
not  conceive  of  a  world  where  the  stars  are  not  visi 
ble,  and,  if  there  is  one,  I  trust  I  shall  never  be  sent 
to  it.  Nothing  conveys  to  my  mind  the  idea  of  eter 
nity  so  forcibly  as  the  grand  spectacle  of  the  heavens 
in  a  clear  night." 

To  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  by  direction  of  the  President,  requesting  him 
to  communicate  the  result  of  his  reflections  on  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Mr.  Adams  made  the  follow 
ing  reply : 

"  QUINCY,  October  11,  1838. 

"  SIR  :  I  have  reserved  for  a  separate  letter  what  I  proposed 
to  say  in  recommending  the  erection  and  establishment  of  an 
Astronomical  Observatory  at  Washington,  as  one  and  the  first 
application  of  the  annual  income  from  the  Smithsonian  be 
quest,  because  that,  of  all  that  I  have  to  say,  I  deem  it  by  far 
*he  most  important ;  and  because,  having  for  many  years 
19 


290     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

believed  that  the  national  character  of  our  country  demanded 
of  us  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution  as  a  debt  of 
honor  to  the  cause  of  science  and  to  the  world  of  civilized 
man,  I  have  hailed  with  cheering  hope  this  opportunity  of 
removing  the  greatest  obstacle  which  has  hitherto  disap 
pointed  the  earnest  wishes  that  I  have  entertained  of  witness 
ing,  before  my  own  departure  for  another  world,  now  near  at 
hand,  the  disappearance  of  a  stain  upon  our  good  name,  in  the 
neglect  to  provide  the  means  of  increasing  and  diffusing 
knowledge  among  men,  by  a  systematic  and  scientific  contin 
ued  series  of  observations  on  the  phenomena  of  the  numberless 
worlds  suspended  over  our  heads  —  the  sublimest  of  physical 
sciences,  and  that  in  which  the  field  of  future  discovery  is  as 
unbounded  as  the  universe  itself.  I  allude  to  the  continued 
and  necessary  expense  of  such  an  establishment. 

"In  my  former  letter  I  proposed  that,  to  preserve  entire 
and  unimpaired  the  Smithsonian  fund,  as  the  principal  of  a 
perpetual  annuity,  the  annual  appropriations  from  its  proceeds 
should  be  strictly  confined  to  its  annual  income  ;  that,  assum 
ing  the  amount  of  the  fund  to  be  five  hundred  thousand  dol 
lars,  it  should  be  so  invested  as  to  secure  a  permanent  yearly 
income  of  thirty  thousand ;  and  that  it  should  be  committed 
to  an  incorporated  board  of  trustees,  with  a  secretary  and 
treasurer,  the  only  person  of  the  board  to  receive  a  pecuniary 
compensation  from  the  fund.'7 

Mr.  Adams  then  refers  to  a  report  made  by  C.  F. 
Mercer,  chairman  of  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  on  the  18th  of  March,  1826  (during 
his  own  administration),  relative  to  the  expenses  of  an 
Observatory,  for  much  valuable  information,  and  thus 
proceeds : 

"  But,  as  it  is  desirable  that  the  principal  building,  the 
Observatory  itself,  should  be,  for  the  purposes  of  observation, 
unsurpassed  by  any  other  edifice  constructed  for  the  same 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  291 

• 

purposes,  I  would  devote  one  year's  interest  from  the  fund  to 
the  construction  of  the  buildings  ;  a  second  and  a  third  to 
constitute  a  fund,  from  the  income  of  which  the  salaries  of  tht 
astronomer,  his  assistants  and  attendants,  should  be  paid ;  a 
fourth  and  fifth  for  the  necessary  instruments  and  books  ;  a 
sixth  and  seventh  for  a  fund,  from  the  income  of  which  the 
expense  should  be  defrayed  of  publishing  the  ephemeris  of 
observation,  and  a  yearly  nautical  almanac.  These  appro 
priations  may  be  so  distributed  as  to  apply  a  part  of  the 
appropriation  of  each  year  to  each  of  those  necessary  expend 
itures  ;  but  for  an  establishment  so  complete  as  may  do  honor 
in  all  time  alike  to  the  testator  and  his  trustees,  the  United 
States  of  America,  I  cannot  reduce  my  estimate  of  the  neces 
sary  expense  below  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

"  My  principles  for  this  disposal  of  funds  are  these  : 

"  1st.  That  the  most  complete  establishment  of  an  Astro 
nomical  Observatory  in  the  world  should  be  founded  by  the 
United  States  of  America ;  the  whole  expense  of  which,  both 
its  first  cost  arid  its  perpetual  maintenance,  should  be  amply 
provided  for,  without  costing  one  dollar  either  to  the  people 
or  to  the  principal  sum  of  the  Smithsonian  bequest. 

"  2d.  That,  by  providing  from  the  income  alone  of  the  fund  a 
supplementary  fund,  from  the  interest  of  which  all  the  salaries 
shall  be  paid,  and  all  the  annual  expenses  of  publication  shall 
be  defrayed,  the  fund  itself  would,  instead  of  being  impaired, 
accumulate  with  the  lapse  of  years.  I  do  most  fervently  wish 
that  this  principle  might  be  made  the  fundamental  law,  now 
and  hereafter,  so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  of  all  the  appro 
priations  of  the  Smithsonian  bequest. 

"  3d.  That,  by  the  establishment  of  an  Observatory  upon 
the  largest  and  most  liberal  scale,  and  providing  for  the  pub 
lication  of  a  yearly  nautical  almanac,  knowledge  will  be  dis 
persed  among  men,  the  reputation  of  our  country  will  rise  to 
honor  and  reverence  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  our  navigators  and  mariners  on  every  ocean  be  no  longer 
dependent  on  English  or  French  observers  or  calculators  for 
tables  indispensable  to  conduct  their  path  upon  the  deep." 


292  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

,  Mr.  Adams,  about  this  period,  expressed  himself 
with  deep  dissatisfaction  at  the  course  pursued  by  the 
President  relative  to  the  Smithsonian  bequest,  com 
bining  the  general  expression  of  a  disposition  to  aid 
his  views  with  apparently  a  total  indifference  as  to  the 
expenditure  of  the  money.     "  The  subject,"  said  he, 
"  weighs  deeply  upon  my  mind.     The  private  inter 
ests   and  sordid    passions  into  which  that   fund  has 
already  fallen  fill  me  with  anxiety  and  apprehensions 
that  it  will  be  squandered  upon  cormorants,  or  wasted 
in  electioneering  bribery.     Almost  all  the  heads  of 
department  are  indifferent  to  its  application  according 
to  the  testator's  bequest ;   distinguished  senators  open 
or  disguised  enemies  to  the  establishment  of  the  insti 
tution  in  any  form.     The  utter  prostration  of  public 
spirit  in  the  Senate,  proved  by  the  selfish  project  to 
apply  it  to  the   establishment  of  a  university ;   the 
investment  of  the  whole  fund,  more  than  half  a  mil 
lion  of  dollars,  in  Arkansas  and  Michigan  state  stocks ; 
the  mean  trick  of  filching  ten  thousand  dollars,  last 
winter,  to  pay  for  the  charges  of  procuring  it,  are 
all  so  utterly  discouraging  that  I  despair  of  effect 
ing  anything  for  the  honor  of  the  country,  or  even  to 
accomplish  the  purpose  of  the  bequest,  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men.     It  is  hard 
to  toil  through  life  for  a  great  purpose,  with  a  convic 
tion  that  it  will  be  in  vain ;   but  possibly  seed  now 
sown  may  bring  forth  some  good  fruits.     In  my  report, 
in  January,  1836,  I  laid  down  all  the  general  princi 
ples  on  which  the  fund  should  have  been  accepted 
and  administered.     I  was  then  wholly  successful.    My 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  293 

bill  passed  without  opposition,  and  under  its  provisions 
the  money  was  procured  and  deposited  in  the  treas 
ury  in  gold.  If  I  cannot  prevent  the  disgrace  of  the 
country  hy  the  failure  of  the  testator's  intention,  I  can 
leave  a  record  to  future  time  of  what  I  have  done,  and 
what  I  would  have  done,  to  accomplish  the  great 
design,  if  executed  well.  And  let  not  the  supplica 
tion  to  the  Author  of  Good  be  wanting." 

In  November,  1838,  the  anti-slavery  party  made 
the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  a  test  question,  on  which  Mr.  Adams  re 
marked  :  "  This  is  absurd,  because  notoriously  imprac 
ticable.  The  house  would  refuse  to  consider  the 
question  two  to  one/'  Writing  on  the  same  subject, 
in  December  of  the  same  year,  "I  doubt/'  said  he, 
"if  there  are  five  members  in  the  house  who  would 
vote  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  at 
this  time.  The  conflict  between  the  principle  of  lib 
erty  and  the  fact  of  slavery  is  coming  gradually  to  an 
issue.  Slavery  has  now  the  power,  and  falls  into 
convulsions  at  the  approach  of  freedom.  That  the  fall 
of  slavery  is  predetermined  in  the  councils  of  Omnip 
otence  I  cannot  doubt.  It  is  a  part  of  the  great  moral 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  man  attested  by  all 
the  records  of  history.  But  the  conflict  will  be  ter 
rible,  and  the  progress  of  improvement  retrograde, 
before  its  final  progress  to  consummation." 

In  January,  1839,  Mr.  Adams,  in  presenting  a  large 
number  of  petitions  for  th6  abolition  of  slavery,  asked 
leave  to  explain  to  the  house  his  reasons  for  the  course 
he  had  adopted  in  relation  to  petitions  of  this  charac- 


294     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

ter.  He  asked  it  as  a  courtesy.  He  had  received  a 
mass  of  letters  threatening  him  with  assassination  for 
this  course.  His  real  position  was  not  understood  by 
his  country.  The  house  having  granted  the  leave,  he 
proceeded  to  state  that,  although  he  had  zealously 
advocated  the  right  to  petition  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  he  was  not  him 
self  then,  prepared  to  grant  their  prayer  ;  that,  if  the 
question  should  be  presented  at  once,  he  should  vote 
against  it.  He  knew  not  what  change  might  be  pro 
duced  on  his  mind  by  a  full  and  fair  discussion,  but 
he  had  not  yet  seen  any  reason  to  change  his  opinion, 
although  he  had  read  all  that  abolitionists  them 
selves  had  written  and  published  on  the  subject.  He 
then  presented  the  petitions,  and  moved  appropriate 
resolutions. 

On  the  21st  of  February,  1839,  Mr.  Adams  pre 
sented  to  the  house  several  resolutions4,  proposing,  in 
the  form  prescribed  by  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  1st.  That  after  the  4th  day  of  July,  1842, 
there  shall  be  no  hereditary  slavery  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  every  child  born  on  and  after  that 
day,  within  the  United  States  and  their  territories, 
shall  be  born  free.  2d.  That,  with  exception  of  Flor 
ida,  there  shall  henceforth  never  be  admitted  into  this 
Union  any  state  the  constitution  of  which  shall  tol 
erate  within  the  same  the  existence  of  slavery.  3d 
That  from  and  after  the  4th  of  July,  1848,  there 
shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  slave-trade  at  the  seat  of 
government  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Adams  proceeded  to  state  that  he  had  in  his 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS.  295 

possession  a  paper,  which  he  desired  to  present,  and 
on  which  these  resolutions  were  founded.  It  was  a 
petition  from  John  Jay,  and  forty-three  most  respect 
able  citizens  of  the  city  of  New  York.  Being  here 
interrupted  by  violent  cries  of  "Order!  "  he  at  that 
time  refrained  from  further  pressing  the  subject. 

On  the  30th  of  April,  1839,  Mr.  Adams  delivered 
before  the  Historical  Society  of  New  York  a  discourse 
entitled  "  The  Jubilee  of  the  Constitution  ;  "  it  being 
the  fiftieth  year  after  the  inauguration  of  George 
Washington  as  President  of  the  United  States.  Of 
all  his  occasional  productions,  this  was,  probably,  the 
most  labored.  In  it  he  traces  the  history  of  the  con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  from  the  period  ante 
cedent  to  the  American  Revolution,  through  the  events 
of  that  war,  to  the  circumstances  which  led  to  its 
adoption,  concluding  with  a  solemn  admonition  to 
adhere  to  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  practically  interwoven  into  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

In  October,  1839,  in  an  address  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Braintree,  of  which  "  Education  "  was  the  topic, 
he  traces  that  of  New  England  to  the  Christian 
religion,  of  which  the  Bible  was  the  text-book  and 
foundation,  and  the  revelation  of  eternal  life.  He 
then  illustrated  the  history  of  that  religion  by  reca 
pitulating  the  difficulties  it  had  to  encounter  through 
ages  of  persecution ;  commented  upon  the  ecclesiasti 
cal  hierarchy  established  under  Constantino,  and  the 
abuses  arising  from  the  policy  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
until  their  final  exposure  by  Martin  Luther,  out  of 


296  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

which  emanated  the  Protestant  faith.  The  display  of 
learning,  the  power  of  reasoning,  and  the  suggestive 
thoughts,  in  this  occasional  essay,  exhibit  the  extent 
and  depth  of  his  studies  of  the  sacred  volume,  to 
which,  more  than  to  any  other,  the  strength  of  his 
mind  had  been  devoted. 

About  this  time  was  published  in  the  newspapers  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Adams  to  Dr.  Thomas  Sewall,  concern 
ing  his  two  letters  on  Phrenology,  and  giving  his  own 
opinion  on  that  subject  in  the  following  characteristic 
language  :  < '  I  have  never  been  able  to  persuade  my 
self  to  think  of  the  science  of  Phrenology  as  &  serious 
speculation.  I  have  classed  it  with  judicial  astrology, 
with  alchemy,  and  with  augury  ;  and,  as  Cicero  says 
he  wonders  how  two  Roman  augurs  could  have  looked 
each  other  in  the  face  without  laughing,  I  have  felt 
something  of  the  same  surprise  that  two  learned  phre 
nologists  can  meet  without  like  temptation.  But, 
as  it  has  been  said  of  Bishop  Berkeley's  anti-material 
system,  that  he  has  demonstrated,  beyond  the  possi 
bility  of  refutation,  what  no  man  in  his  senses  can 
believe,  so,  without  your  assistance,  I  should  never 
have  been  able  to  encounter  the  system  of  thirty-three 
or  thirty-five  faculties  of  the  immortal  soul  all  clus 
tered  on  the  blind  side  of  the  head.  I  thank  you  for 
furnishing  me  with  argument  to  meet  the  doctors  who 
pack  up  the  five  senses  in  thirty-five  parcels  of  the 
brain.  I  hope  your  lectures  will  be  successful  in 
recalling  the  sober  sense  of  the  material  philosophers 
to  the  dignity  of  an  imperishable  mind." 

With  an  urgent  request,  contained  in  a  letter  dated 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  297 

the  28th  of  June,  1839,  for  his  opinion  on  the  constitu 
tionality  and  expediency  of  the  law,  then  recently 
sanctioned  by  two  Legislatures  of  Massachusetts, 
called  the  license  law,  Mr.  Adams  declined  comply 
ing,  for  reasons  stated  at  length.  He  regarded  the 
purpose  of  the  law  as  "in  the  highest  degree  pure, 
patriotic,  and  benevolent."  It  had,  however,  given 
rise  to  two  evils,  which  were  already  manifested. 
"The  first,  a  spirit  of  concerted  and  determined 
resistance  to  its  execution.  The  second,  a  concerted 
effort  to  turn  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  people  with  the 
law  into  a  political  engine  against  the  administration 
of  the  state.  There  is  no  duty  more  impressive  upon 
the  Legislature  than  that  of  accommodating  the  exer 
cise  of  its  power  to  the  spirit  of  those  over  whom  it  is 
to  operate.  Abstract  right,  deserving  as  it  is  of  the 
profound  reverence  of  every  ruler  over  men,  is  yet  not 
the  principle  which  must  guide  and  govern  his  con 
duct  ;  and  whoever  undertakes  to  make  it  exclusively 
his  guide  will  soon  find  in  the  community  a  resistance 
that  will  overrule  him  and  his  principles.  The  Su 
preme  Ruler  of  the  universe  declares  himself,  in  the 
holy  Scriptures,  that,  in  dealing  with  the  prevarica 
tions  of  his  chosen  people,  he  sometimes  gave  them 
statutes  which  were  not  good." 

On  the  2d  December,  1839,  at  the  opening  of  the 
Twenty-Sixth  Congress,  the  clerk  began  to  call  the 
roll  of  the  members,  according  to  custom.  When 
he  came  to  New  Jersey,  he  stated  that  five  seats  of 
the  members  from  that  state  were  contested,  and  that, 
not  feeling  himself  authorized  to  decide  the  question, 


298  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

he  should  pass  over  those  names,  and  proceed  with  the 
call.  This  gave  rise  to  a  general  and  violent  debate 
on  the  steps  to  be  pursued  under  such  circumstances. 
It  was  declared  by  Mr.  Adams  that  the  proceeding  of 
the  clerk  was  evidently  preconcerted  to  exclude  the 
five  members  from  New  Jersey  from  voting  at  the 
organization  of  the  house.  Innumerable  questions 
were  raised,  but  the  house  could  not  agree  upqn  the 
mode  of  proceeding,  and  from  the  2d  to  the  5th  it 
remained  in  a  perfectly  disorganized  state,  and  in 
apparently  inextricable  confusion.  The  remainder  of 
the  scene  is  thus  described,  in  the  newspapers,  by  one 
apparently  an  eye-witness  : 

"  Mr.  Adams,  from  the  opening  of  this  scene  of  confusion 
and  anarchy,  had  maintained  a  profound  silence.  He  appeared 
to  be  engaged  most  of  the  time  in  writing.  To  a  common 
observer  he  seemed  to  be  reckless  of  everything  around  him. 
But  nothing,  not  the  slightest  incident,  escaped  him. 

"  The  fourth  day  of  the  struggle  had  now  commenced.  Mr. 
Hugh  A.  Garland,  the  clerk,  was  directed  to  call  the  roll  again. 
He  commenced  with  Maine,  as  usual  in  those  days,  and  was 
proceeding  towards  Massachusetts.  I  turned  and  saw  that 
Mr.  Adams  was  ready  to  get  the  floor  at  the  earliest  moment 
possible.  His  eye  was  riveted  on  the  clerk,  his  hands  clasped 
the  front  edge  of  his  desk,  where  he  always  placed  them  to 
assist  him  in  rising.  He  looked,  in  the  language  of  Otway, 
like  a  '  fowler  eager  for  his  prey.' 

'"New  Jersey!'  ejaculated  Mr.  Hugh  Garland,  'and—' 

"  Mr.  Adams  immediately  sprang  to  the  floor. 

'"I  rise  to  interrupt  the  clerk/  was  his  first  exclamation. 

"  '  Silence  !  Silence  ! '  resounded  through  the  hall.  '  Hear 
him !  Hear  him  !  Hear  what  he  has  to  say !  Hear  John 
Quincy  Adams  ! '  was  vociferated  on  all  sides. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  299 

"  In  an  instant  the  most  profound  stillness  reigned  through 
out  the  hall, — you  might  have  heard  a  leaf  of  paper  fall  in 
any  part  of  it,  —  and  every  eye  was  riveted  on  the  venerable 
Nestor  of  Massachusetts  —  the  purest  of  statesmen,  and  the 
noblest  of  men  !  He  paused  for  a  moment,  and,  having  given 
Mr.  Garland  a  withering  look,  he  proceeded  to  address  the 
multitude. 

"  'It  was  not  my  intention/  said  he,  'to  take  any  part  in 
these  extraordinary  proceedings.  I  had  hoped  this  house 
would  succeed  in  organizing  itself;  that  a  speaker  and  clerk 
would  be  elected,  and  that  the  ordinary  business  of  legislation 
would  be  progressed  in.  This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  dis 
cuss  the  merits  of  conflicting  claimants  from  New  Jersey. 
That  subject  belongs  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  which, 
by  the  constitution,  is  made  the  ultimate  arbiter  of  the  qualifi 
cations  of  its  members.  But  what  a  spectacle  we  here  pre 
sent  !  We  degrade  and  disgrace  our  constituents  and  the 
country.  We  do  not  and  cannot  organize;  and  why?  Be 
cause  the  clerk  of  this  house  —  the  mere  clerk,  whom  we  cre 
ate,  whom  we  employ,  and  whose  existence  depends  upon  our 
will  —  usurps  the  throne,  and  sets  us,  the  representatives,  the 
vicegerents  of  the  whole  American  people,  at  defiance,  and 
holds  us  in  contempt  I  And  what  is  this  clerk  of  yours  ?  Is 
he  to  suspend,  by  his  mere  negative,  the  functions  of  govern 
ment,  and  put  an  end  to  this  Congress  ?  He  refuses  to  call 
the  roll !  It  is  in  your  power  to  compel  him  to  call  it,  if  he 
will  not  do  it  voluntarily.'  [Here  he  was  interrupted  by  a 
member,  who  said  that  he  was  authorized  to  say  that  compul 
sion  could  not  reach  the  clerk,  who  had  avowed  that  he  would 
resign  rather  than  call  the  State  of  New  Jersey.]  '  Well,  sir, 
let  him  resign,'  continued  Mr.  Adams,  '  and  we  may  possibly 
discover  some  way  by  which  we  can  get  along  without  the  aid 
of  his  all-powerful  talent,  learning,  and  genius  ! 

"  'If  we  cannot  organize  in  any  other  way,  —  if  this  clerk 
of  yours  will  not  consent  to  our  discharging  the  trust  confided 
to  us  by  our  constituents,  —  then  let  us  imitate  the  example 
of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  which,  when  the  colonial 


300     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Governor  Dinwiddie  ordered  it  to  disperse,  refused  to  obey  the 
imperious  and  insulting  mandate,  and,  like  men  — ' 

"The  multitude  could  not  contain  or  repress  their  enthu 
siasm  any  longer,  but  saluted  the  eloquent  and  indignant 
speaker,  and  interrupted  him  with  loud  arid  deafening  cheers, 
which  seemed  to  shake  the  capitol  to  its  centre.  The  very 
genii  of  applause  and  enthusiasm  seemed  to  float  in  the  atmos 
phere  of  the  hall,  and  every  heart  expanded  with  an  indescrib 
able  feeling  of  pride  and  exultation.  The  turmoil,  the  darkness, 
the  very  'chaos  of  anarchy/  which  had  for  three  successive 
days  pervaded  the  American  Congress,  was  dispelled  by  the 
magic,  the  talismanic  eloquence,  of  a  single  man ;  and  once 
more  the  wheels  of  government  and  legislation  were  put  in 
motion. 

"Having,  by  this  powerful  appeal,  brought  the  yet  unor 
ganized  assembly  to  a  perception  of  its  hazardous  position,  he 
submitted  a  motion  requiring  the  acting  clerk  to  call  the  roll. 
Accordingly  Mr.  Adams  was  interrupted  by  a  burst  of  voices 
demanding,  '  How  shall  the  question  be  put  ? '  '  Who  will 
put  the  question  ? '  The  voice  of  Mr.  Adams  was  heard  above 
the  tumult:  'I  intend  to  put  the  question  myself!'  That 
word  brought  order  out  of  chaos.  There  was  the  master 
mind. 

"As  soon  as  the  multitude  had  recovered  itself,  and  the 
excitement  of  irrepressible  enthusiasm  had  abated,  Mr.  Rich 
ard  Barnwell  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  leaped  upon  one  of  the 
desks,  waved  his  hand,  and  exclaimed  :  '  I  move  that  the  Hon 
orable  John  Quincy  Adams  take  the  chair  of  the  Speaker  of 
the  house,  and  officiate  as  presiding  officer  till  the  house  be 
organized  by  the  election  of  its  constitutional  officers.  As 
many  as  are  agreed  to  this  will  say  Ay  ;  those — ' 

"  He  had  not  an  opportunity  to  complete  the  sentence, 
'  those  who  are  not  agreed  will  say  No  ;'  for  one  universal, 
deafening,  thundering  AY  responded  to  the  nomination. 

"  Hereupon  it  was  moved  and  ordered  that  Lewis  Williams, 
of  North  Carolina,  and  Richard  Barnwell  Rhett,  conduct  John 
Quincy  Adams  to  the  chair. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  301 

"  Well  did  Mr.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  say :  '  Sir,  I  regard  it  as 
the  proudest  hour  of  your  life  ;  and  if,  when  you  shall  be  gath 
ered  to  your  fathers,  I  were  asked  to  select  the  words  which, 
in  my  judgment,  are  best  calculated  to  give  at  once  the  char 
acter  of  the  man,  I  would  inscribe  upon  your  tomb  this  sen 
tence  :  I  will  put  the  question  myself.' ' 


CHAPTER    XI. 

SECOND   REPORT    ON    THE   SMITHSONIAN  FUND. HIS   SPEECH    ON    A    BILL 

FOR  INSURING  A  MORE  FAITHFUL  EXECUTION  OF  THE  LAWS  RELAT 
ING  TO  THE  COLLECTION  OF  DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS. REMARKS  ON 

THE   ESTABLISHMENT  OF   AN    EXTENSIVE   SERIES    OF    MAGNETICAL   AND 

METEOROLOGICAL     OBSERVATIONS ON     ITINERANT     ELECTIONEERING 

ON  ABUSES  IN  RESPECT  OF  THE  NAVY  FUND ON  THE  POLITI 
CAL  INFLUENCES* OF  THE  TIME ON  THE  ORIGIN  AND  RESULTS  OF 

THE  FLORIDA  WAR. HIS  DENUNCIATION  OF  DUELLING. HIS  ARGU 
MENT  IN  THE  SUPREME  COURT  ON  BEHALF  OF  AFRICANS  CAPTURED 
IN  THE  AMISTAD. 

ON  the  5th  of  March,  1840,  Mr.  Adams,  as  chair 
man  of  the  select  committee  on  the  Smithsonian  be 
quest,  made  a  report,  in  which  he  recapitulated  all  the 
material  facts  which  had  previously  occurred  relative 
to  the  acceptance  of  this  fund,  and  entered  into  the 
motives  which  prevailed  with  the  former  committee  as 
to  its  disposal.  It  appeared  from  this  report,  which  was 
accompanied  by  a  publication  of  all  the  documents 
connected  with  the  subject  up  to  that  period,  that  the 
fund  had  been  received,  and  paid  into  the  Treasury, 
and  invested  in  state  stocks,  and  that  the  President 
now  invited  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  obligation 
devolving  upon  the  United  States  to  fulfil  the  object 
of  the  bequest.  While  this  message  was  under  con 
sideration  various  projects  for  disposing  of  the  funds 

(302) 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  303 

had  been  presented  by  individuals,  in  memorials,  con 
cerning  which  the  report  states  that  they  generally 
contemplated  the  establishment  of  a  school,  college, 
or  university,  proposing  expenditures  absorbing  the 
whole  in  the  erection  of  buildings,  and  leaving  little 
or  nothing  for  the  improvement  of  future  ages.  "  In 
most  of  these  projects,"  says  Mr.  Adams,  "  there 
might  be  perceived  purposes  of  personal  accommoda 
tion  and  emolument  to  the  projectors,  more  adapted  to 
the  promotion  of  their  own  interest  than  to  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men/' 

While  these  memorials  and  the  subject  of  the  dis 
posal  of  the  whole  Smithson  fund  were  before  the 
select  committee,  a  resolution  came  from  the  Senate 
appointing  "a  joint  committee,  consisting  of  seven 
members  of  the  Senate,  and  such  a  number  as  the 
House  of  Representatives  should  appoint,  to  consider 
the  expediency  of  providing  an  institution  of  learning, 
to  be  established  at  the  city  of  Washington,  for  the 
application  of  the  legacy  bequeathed  by  James  Smith- 
son,  of  London,  to  the  United  States,  in  trust  for  that 
purpose."  The  House,  out  of  courtesy  to  the  Senate, 
concurred  in  their  resolution,  and  added  on  their  part 
the  members  of  that  of  which  Mr.  Adams  was  chair 
man. 

The  propositions  of  the  committee  on  the  part  of  the 
House  and  that  on  the  part  of  the  Senate  were  so 
widely  at  variance,  that  it  was  found  that  no  result 
could  be  obtained  in  which  both  committees  would 
concur.  It  was  finally  agreed  that  the  committee  on 
the  part  of  the  House  should  report  their  project  to 


304     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

the  House  for  consideration.  Mr.  Adams,  thereupon, 
as  chairman,  reported  a  series  of  resolutions,  sub 
stantially  of  the  following  import :  That  the  whole 
Smithson  fund  should  be  vested  in  a  corporate  body 
of  trustees,  to  remain,  under  the  pledge  of  the  faith 
of  the  United  States,  undiminished  and  unimpaired, 
at  an  interest  yielding  annually  six  per  cent.,  appro 
priated  to  the  declared  purpose  of  the  founder,  exclu 
sively  from  the  interest,  and  not  in  any  part  from  the 
principal,  —  the  first  appropriation  of  interest  to  be 
applied  for  the  erection  of  an  astronomical  observa 
tory,  and  for  the  various  objects  incident  to  such  an 
establishment ;  — that  the  education  of  youth  had  not 
for  its  object  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men,  but  the  endowment  of  individuals  with 
knowledge  already  acquired ;  and  the  Smithson  fund 
should rfiot  be  applied  to  the  purpose  of  education,  or 
to  any  school,  college,  university,  or  institution  of 
education. 

The  chairman  of  the  committee  of  the  Senate, 
in  their  behalf,  presented  counter  resolutions,  disap 
proving  the  application  of  any  part  of  the  funds  to 
the  establishment  of  an  astronomical  observatory,  and 
urging  the  appropriation  of  them  to  the  establishment 
of  a  university.  The  bill  prepared  by  the  House  is 
presented  at  large  in  this  report,  accompanied  with 
the  argument  in  its  support,  prepared  by  Mr.  Adams 
with  a  strength  and  fulness  to  which  no  abstract  can 
do  justice.  In  this  argument  he  illustrates  the  rea 
sons  for  preserving  the  principal  of  the  fund  unim 
paired,  and  confining  all  expenditures  from  it  to  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  305 

annual  interest ;  also  those  which  preclude  any  portion 
of  it  to  be  applied  to  any  institution  for  education; 
showing,  from  the  peculiar  expressions  of  the  testator, 
that  it  could  not  have  been  his  intention  that  the  fund 
should  be  applied  in  this  manner.  He  then  proceeds 
to  set  forth  the  reasons  why  the  income  of  the  fund 
should  in  the  first  instance  be  applied  to  an  astronom 
ical  observatory,  without  intending  to  exclude  any 
branch  of  human  knowledge  from  its  equitable  share 
of  this  benefaction.  The  importance  of  this  object 
he  thus  eloquently  illustrates  :  "  The  express  object 
of  Mr.  Smithson's  bequest  is  the  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men.  IT  is  KNOWLEDGE,  the  source  of  all 
human  wisdom,  and  of  all  beneficent  power;  knowl 
edge,  as  far  transcending  the  postulated  lever  of 
Archimedes  as  the  universe  transcends  this  speck  of 
earth  upon  its  face;  knowledge,  the  attribute  of 
Omnipotence,  of  which  man  alone,  in  the  physical  and 
material  world,  is  permitted  to  anticipate/' 

Why  astronomical  science  should  be  the  object  to 
which  the  income  of  this  fund  should  be  first  applied 
he  thus  proceeds  to  set  forth  : 

"The  express  object  of  an  observatory  is  the  increase  of 
knowledge  by  new  discovery.  The  physical  relations  between 
the  firmament  of  heaven  and  the  globe  allotted  by  the  Creator 
of  all  to  be  the  abode  of  man  are  discoverable  only  by  the 
organ  of  the  eye.  Many  of  these  relations  are  indispensable 
to  the  existence  of  human  life,  and  perhaps  of  the  earth  itself. 
Who,  that  can  conceive  the  idea  of  a  world  without  a  sun,  but 
must  connect  with  it  the  extinction  of  light  and  heat,  of  all 
animal  life,  of  all  vegetation  and  production,  leaving  the  life 
less  clod  of  matter  to  return  to  the  primitive  state  of  chaos,  or 
20 


306     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

to  be  consumed  by  elemental  fire  ?  The  influence  of  the  moon 
—  of  the  planets,  our  next-door  neighbors  of  the  solar  sys 
tem  —  of  the  fixed  stars,  scattered  over  the  blue  expanse  in 
multitudes  exceeding  the  power  of  human  computation,  and 
at  distances  of  whbh  imagination  herself  can  form  no  distinct 
conception  ;  — the  influence  of  all  these  upon  the  globe  which 
we  inhabit,  and  upon  the  condition  of  man,  its  dying  and 
deathless  inhabitant,  is  great  and  mysterious,  and,  in  the 
search  for  final  causes,  to  a  great  degree  inscrutable  to  his 
finite  and  limited  faculties.  The  extent  to  which  they  are  dis 
coverable  is  and  must  remain  unknown ;  but,  to  the  vigilance 
of  a  sleepless  eye,  to  the  toil  of  a  tireless  hand,  and  to  the 
meditations  of  a  thinking,  combining,  and  analyzing  mind, 
secrets  are  successively  revealed,  not  only  of  the  deepest 
import  to  the  welfare  of  man  in  his  earthly  career,  but  which 
seem  to  lift  him  from  the  earth  to  the  threshold  of  his  eternal 
abode  ;  to  lead  him  blindfold  up  to  the  council-chamber  of 
Omnipotence,  and  there,  stripping  the  bandage  from  his  eyes, 
bid  him  look  undazzled  at  the  throne  of  God. 

"  In  the  history  of  the  human  species,  so  far  as  it  is  known 
to  us,  astronomical  observation  was  one  of  the  first  objects  of 
pursuit  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  In  the  first  chap 
ter  of  the  sacred  volume  we  are  told  that,  in  the  process  of 
creation,  '  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of 
the  heavens  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night ;  and  let  them  be 
for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  for  years/  By 
the  special  appointment,  then,  of  the  Creator,  they  were  made 
the  standards  for  the  measurement  of  time  upon  earth.  They 
were  made  for  more :  not  only  for  seasons,  for  days,  and  for 
years,  but  for  SIGNS.  Signs  of  what?  It  may  be  that  the 
word,  in  this  passage,  has  reference  to  the  signs  of  the  Egyp 
tian  zodiac,  to  mark  the  succession  of  solar  months  ;  or  it 
may  indicate  a  more  latent  connection  between  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  of  the  nature  of  judicial  astrology.  These  rela 
tions  are  not  only  apparent  to  the  most  superficial  observation 
of  man,  but  many  of  them  remain  inexhaustible  funds  of  suc 
cessive  discovery,  perhaps  as  long  as  the  continued  existence 
of  man  upon  earth.  What  an  unknown  world  of  mind,  for 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  307 

example,  is  yet  teeming  in  the  womb  of  time,  to  be  revealec 
in  tracing  the  causes  of  the  sympathy  between  the  magnet  and 
the  pole  —  that  unseen,  immaterial  spirit,  which  walks  with  us 
through  the  most  entangled  forests,  over  the  most  intermina 
ble  wilderness,  and  across  every  region  of  the  pathless  deep, 
by  day,  by  night,  in  the  calm  serene  of  a  cloudless  sky,  arid 
in  the  howling  of  the  hurricane  or  the  typhoon  ?  Who  can 
witness  the  movements  of  that  tremulous  needle,  poised  upon 
its  centre,  still  tending  to  the  polar  star,  but  obedient  to  his 
distant  hand,  armed  with  a  metallic  guide,  round  every  point 
of  the  compass,  at  the  fiat  of  his  will,  without  feeling  a  thrill 
of  amazement  approaching  to  superstition  ?  The  discovery  of 
the  attractive  power  of  the  magnet  was  made  before  the  inven 
tion  of  the  alphabet,  or  the  age  of  hieroglyphics.  No  record 
of  the  event  is  found  upon  the  annals  of  human  history.  But 
seven  hundred  years  have  scarcely  passed  away  since  its  polar 
ity  was  first  known  to  the  civilized  European  man.  It  was  by 
observation  of  the  periodical  revolution  of  the  earth  in  her 
orbit  round  the  sun,  compared  with  her  daily  revolution  round 
her  axis,  that  was  disclosed  the  fact  that  her  annual  period 
was  composed  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  of  her  daily 
revolutions  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  year  was  composed 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  da3Ts.  But  the  shepherds  of 
Egypt,  watching  their  flocks  by  night,  could  not  but  observe 
the  movements  of  the  dog-star,  next  to  the  sun  the  most  bril 
liant  of  the  luminaries  of  heaven.  They  worshipped  that  star  as 
a  god  ;  and,  losing  sight  of  him  for  about  forty  days  every  year, 
during  his  conjunction  with  the  sun,  they  watched  with  intense 
anxiety  for  his  reappearance  in  the  sky,  and  with  that  day 
commenced  their  year.  By  this  practice  it  failed  not  soon  to 
be  found  that,  although  the  reappearance  of  the  star  for  three 
successive  years  was  at  the  end  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  da3^s,  it  would,  on  the  fourth  year,  be  delayed  one  day 
longer ;  and,  after  repeated  observation  of  this  phenomenon, 
they  added  six  hours  to  the  computed  duration  of  the  year, 
and  established  the  canicular  period  of  four  years,  consisting- 
of  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty-one  days.  It  was  not 
until  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar  that  this  computation  of  time 


308  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

was  adopted  in  the  Roman  calendar  ;  and  fifteen  centuries 
from  that  time  had  elapsed  before  the  yearly  celebration  of 
the  Christian  paschal  festivals,  founded  upon  the  Passover  of 
the  Levitical  law,  revealed  the  fact  that  the  annual  revolution 
of  the  earth  in  her  orbit  round  the  sun  is  not  precisely  of 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  and  one  quarter,  but  of 
between  eleven  and  twelve  minutes  less  ;  and  thus  the  dura 
tion  of  the  year  was  ascertained,  as  a  measure  of  time,  to  an 
accuracy  of  three  or  four  seconds,  more  or  less  —  a  mistake 
which  would  scarcely  amount  to  one  day  in  twenty  thousand 
years. 

"It  is,  then,  to  the  successive  discoveries  of  persevering 
astronomical  observation,  through  a  period  of  fifty  centuries, 
that  we  are  indebted  for  a  fixed  and  permanent  standard  for 
the  measurement  of  time.  And  by  the  same  science  has  man 
acquired,  so  far  as  he  possesses  it,  a  standard  for  the  meas 
urement  of  space.  A  standard  for  the  measurement  of  the 
dimensions  and  distances  of  the  fixed  stars  from  ourselves  is 
yet  to  be  found  :  and,  if  ever  found,  will  be  through  the  means 
of  astronomical  observation. 

"  The  influence  of  all  these  discoveries  upon  the  condition 
of  man  is  no  doubt  infinitely  diversified  in  relative  importance  ; 
but  all,  even  the  minutest,  contribute  to  the  increase  and  dif 
fusion  of  knowledge.  There  is  no  richer  field  of  science  opened 
to  the  exploration  of  man  in  search  of  knowledge  than  astro 
nomical  observation  ;  nor  is  there,  in  the  opinion  of  this  com 
mittee,  any  duty  more  impressively  incumbent  upon  all  human 
governments  than  that  of  furnishing  means,  and  facilities,  and 
rewards,  to  those  who  devote  the  labors  of  their  lives  to  the 
indefatigable  industry,  the  unceasing  vigilance,  and  the  bright 
intelligence,  indispensable  to  success  in  these  pursuits." 

These  remarks  are  succeeded  by  others  on  the  Royal 
Observatory  of  Greenwich,  on  the  connection  of  astron 
omy  with  the  art  of  navigation,  on  the  increase  of 
observatories  in  the  British  Islands,  in  France,  and  in 
Russia;  and,  after  repeating  the  objections  to  applying 


MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.     309 

the  fund  of  Mr.  Smithson  to  a  school  devoted  to  anv 
particular  branch  of  science,  or  for  general  education, 
Mr.  Adams,  in  behalf  of  the  committee,  submitted  a 
bill  for  the  consideration  of  the  house,  embracing  the 
principles  maintained  in  his  report. 

On  May  8th,  1840,  a  bill  to  insure  a  more  faithful 
execution  of  the  laws  relating  to  the  collection  of 
duties  on  imports  being  under  consideration  of  the 
house,  Mr.  Adams,  after  commenting  on  the  nature 
and  injurious  consequences  of  the  fraud  which  it  was 
the  object  of  the  bill  to  prevent,  said  that  this  prac 
tice  was  "  a  sort  of  national  thing,"  to  such  an  extent 
were  the  citizens  of  Great  Britain  accustomed  to  come 
over  to  this  country  to  cheat  us  out  of  our  revenue, 
and  to  defraud  our  manufacturing  interest,  and  added 

"  I  have  said  that  there  is  something  national  in  this  matter, 
and  I  will  now  proceed  to  state  what,  in  my  judgment,  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  this  proceeding.  It  is  a  maxim  of  British  com 
mercial  law  that  it  is  lawful  for  the  citizens  of  one  nation  to 
defraud  the  revenues  of  other  nations.  The  author  of  the 
maxim  was  a  man  famous  throughout  the  civilized  world,  —  a 
man  of  transcendent  talents,  who  fixed,  more,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  man  of  the  same  century,  his  impress  on  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  and  upon  the  laws  of  England,  —  I  mean  Lord 
Mansfield.  In  some  respects  it  has  been  greatly  to  the  advan 
tage  of  those  laws,  but  in  others  as  much  to  their  disad 
vantage  and  discredit,  of  which  the  maxim  of  which  I  now 
speak  is  a  signal  instance.  He  was  the  first  British  judge  who 
established  the  principle  that  it  is  a  lawful  thing  for  English 
men  to  cheat  the  revenue  laws  of  other  nations,  especially 
those  of  Spain  and  Portugal. 

"  This  principle  was  first  settled  in  an  act  of  Parliament,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  suppress  what  are  denominated  wager 
policies  of  insurance  —  a  species  of  instrument  well  known  to 


310  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

lawyers  as  gambling  policies,  being  entered  into  when  the 
party  insuring  has  no  interest  in  the  property  insured.  It  had 
been  a  question  whether  such  policies  were  lawful  by  the  com 
mon  law.  The  practice  had  greatly  increased,  insomuch  that 
wager  policies  had  become  a  common  thing.  It  was  with  a 
view  to  suppress  these  that  the  statute  of  the  nineteenth  of 
George  the  Second,  chapter  thirty-seventh,  was  passed.  The 
object  of  that  statute  was  good ;  it  was  remedial  in  its  char 
acter  ;  it  went  to  suppress  a  public  evil ;  but,  while  it  prohib 
ited  wager  policies  in  all  other  cases,  it  contained  an  express 
exception  in  favor  of  those  made  on  vessels  trading  to  Spain  and 
Portugal." 

After  commenting  on  this  act  of  the  British  Par 
liament,  he  quotes  the  words  of  Blackstone,  who, 
after  stating  the  nature  of  these  smuggling  policies, 
and  dwelling  upon  their  immorality  and  pernicious 
tendency,  refers  to  the  law  above  mentioned,  which 
enacts  "that  they  shall  be  totally  null  and  void, 
except  as  to  policies  on  privateers  in  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  trade,  for  reasons  sufficiently  obvious." 
(2  Blackstone,  ch.  xxx.,  p.  4,  §1.)  On  this  state 
ment  of  Blackstone  Mr.  Adams  remarks : 

"It  is  an  old  maxirn  of  the  schools  that  frauds  are  always 
concealed  under  generalities.  What  were  these  obvious  rea 
sons?  Why  were  they  concealed?  It  is  known  to  the  com 
mittee  that,  in  the  celebrated  controversy  of  the  man  in  the 
mask,  —  I  mean  Jnnius  with  Blackstone,  —  he  said,  that  for  the 
defence  of  law,  of  justice,  and  of  truth,  let  any  man  consult 
the  work  of  that  great  judge,  his  Commentaries  upon  the  laws 
of  England ;  but,  if  a  man  wanted  to  cheat  his  neighbor  out 
of  his  estate,  he  should  consult  the  doctor  himself.  I  go  a 
little  further  than  Junius,  although  I  do  it  with  great  reluct 
ance,  for  I  hold  the  book  to  be  one  of  the  best  books  in  the 
world.  I  say  that  the  observation  of  Junius  applies  to  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  311 

book  as  much  as  to  the  judge,  when,  from  reasons  like  those 
with  which  scoundrels  cover  their  consciences,  that  book 
evades  telling  why  the  exception  was  made  in  regard  to  Spain 
and  Portugal,  and  what  those  reasons  were  which  the  judge 
declares  to  be  '  sufficiently  obvious.' 

"  This  exception  of  the  British  law  was  infectious;  it  spread 
into  France,  whose  government  adopted  the  same  provision 
by  way  of  reprisal" 

Mr.  Adams  then  read  from  Emerigon,  the  principal 
authority  of  French  lawyers  on  insurance,  who  denies 
the  principles  of  the  English  statute  ;  and  M.  Pothier, 
not  a  mere  lawyer,  but  a  philosopher  and  moralist, 
who  protests  against  this  doctrine,  and  appeals  to  the 
eternal  laws  of  morality.  He  then  cites  the  second 
volume  Term  Reports,  p.  164,  in  which  Judge  Buller 
states,  "I  have  heard  Lord  Mansfield  say  that  the 
reason  of  that  allowance  was  to  favor  the  smuggling 
of  bullion  from  those  countries."  On  which  Mr. 
Adams  remarks : 

"  This  is  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter.  Judge  Buller  heard 
Lord  Mansfield  say  that  the  object  of  the  exception  in  regard 
to  Spain  and  Portugal  was  to  encourage  —  yes,  to  encourage 
—  the  smuggling  trade.  The  object  was  that  smugglers  should 
not  only  escape  the  effect  of  their  villany,  but  should  be  actu 
ally  encouraged  by  government  in  its  perpetration. 

"I  think  I  have  now  established  the  position  which  I 
assumed,  that  the  lawfulness  of  violating  the  revenue  laws 
of  other  nations  is  a  principle  of  English  law,  —  a  principle 
sanctioned  by  the  Legislature  and  the  judicial  courts  of  Great 
Britain,  —  but  one  which  the  best  elementary  writers,  proceed 
ing  on  the  great  and  eternal  principles  of  morality,  have  con 
demned  as  a  false  principle ;  and  I  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  do  this  with  a  view  to  trace  these  frauds  upon  our  revenue, 
committed  by  British  subjects,  to  what  I  believe  to  be  their 


312  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

original  source  in  the  false  morality  in  the  English  Parliament 
and  English  judges.  What  is  the  natural  effect  of  the  promul 
gation  of  such  principles  by  such  authority  ?  What  can  it  be 
but  to  encourage  frauds  on  the  revenue  of  other  nations? 
When  a  principle  like  this  goes  out,  sanctioned  with  the  legis 
lative  authority,  it  will  have  its  effect  on  the  nation. 

"'  Quid  leges  sine  moribus.'  The  whole  moral  principle  of 
a  nation  is  contaminated  by  the  legislative  authorization  and 
judicial  sanction  of  a  practice  dishonest  in  itself,  which  neces 
sarily  includes  not  merely  a  permission,  but  a  stimulant,  to  per 
jury.  If  an  English  merchant,  subscribing  to  this  principle, 
goes  to  establish  himself  in  a  foreign  country,  he  goes  as  an 
enemy,  warranted,  by  the  sanction  of  his  own  courts  and 
Parliament,  to  do  anything  that  can  defraud  its  revenue. 
Perhaps  this  may  be  one  of  the  causes  of  the  vulgar  saying, 
—  which  all  must  have  heard,  but  which,  thank  God,  I  still 
hope  is  not  warranted  by  the  practice  of  the  native  merchants 
of  our  country,  —  that  custom-house  oaths  have  no  validity. 
There  is  a  feeling,  but  too  prevalent,  which  distinguishes 
between  custom-house  oaths  and  other  oaths.  It  is  obvious 
that  smuggling  cannot  be  carried  on  to  any  extent  without  the 
commission  of  perjury.  There  must  be  false  swearing  ;  and 
it  is  that  false  swearing  which  the  British  laws  have  sanc 
tioned.  None  of  this  bullion,  of  which  Justice  Buller  speaks, 
could  be  smuggled  out  of  Spain  and  Portugal  without  false 
oaths ;  and  you  will  find,  from  the  details  of  a  case  which  I 
shall  presently  call  to  your  attention,  that  false  swearing  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the  frauds  which  this  bill  seeks  to  correct  — 
frauds  in  consequence  of  which  seven  eighths  of  all  the  wool 
lens  imported  into  New  York  escaped  the  payment  of  the  duty 
charged  by  law.  These  people  do  not  hold  themselves  bound 
to  respect  our  revenue  laws,  and  thus  proceed  without  scru 
ples  to  the  perpetration  of  perjury  in  order  to  carry  on  with 
success  the  evasion  of  them." 

In  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  Mr.  Adams  paid  the 
following  tribute  to  the  English  nation,  saying : 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  313 

"  That  of  the  English  nation  he  entertained  sentiments  of 
the  most  exalted  admiration  ;  that  he  was  proud  of  being  him 
self  descended  from  that  stock,  although  two  hundred  years 
had  passed  away,  during  which  all  his  ancestors  had  been 
natives  of  this  country.  He  claimed  the  great  men  of  Eng 
land  of  former  ages  as  his  countrymen,  and  could  say  with 
the  poet  Cowper,  in  hearty  concurrence  with  the  sentiment, 

that  it  is 

'  Praise  enough 

To  fill  the  ambition  of  a  common  man, 
That  Chatham's  language  was  his  mother  tongue, 
And  Wolfe's  great  name  compatriot  with  his  own.' 

He  believed  that  no  nation,  of  ancient  or  modern  times,  was 
more  entitled  to  veneration  for  its  exertion  in  the  cause  of 
human  improvement  than  the  British.  He  thought  their  code 
of  laws  admirable  ;  but,  in  the  discussion  of  the  bill  before 
the  committee,  he  had  been  compelled,  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duty,  to  expose  one  great  erroneous  principle  of  morals  incor 
porated  into  their  laws ;  a  principle,  the  natural  and  neces 
sary  consequence  of  which  had  been  the  occasion  of  the  bill 
now  before  the  committee  ;  a  principle  enacted  by  the  British 
Parliament,  arid  sanctioned  by  the  decision  of  their  highest 
judicial  tribunals,  with  the  express  and  avowed  purpose  of 
encouraging  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  to  the  practice  of 
defrauding,  even  by  the  commission  of  perjury,  the  revenues 
of  a  foreign  country." 

In  July,  1840,  a  memorial  was  presented  to  Con 
gress,  fvom  the  American  Philosophical  Society  of 
Philadelphia,  asking  the  aid  of  government  to  carry 
on  a  series  of  magnetic  and  meteorological  observa 
tions.  This  application  was  made  in  cooperation  with 
the  Royal  Society  of  Great  Britain,  and  at  their  solic 
itation,  and  had  for  its  object  an  extended  system  of 
magnetic  observations  at  fixed  magnetic  observatories 
in  different  quarters  of  the  globe.  Mr.  Adams,  hav- 


314     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

ing  been  appointed  chairman  of  a  committee  on  the 
memorial,  made  a  report  setting  forth  at  large  the 
motives  for  concurrence,  and  the  importance  of  the 
object  asked  for.  The  following  extracts  illustrate 
his  comprehensive  views  and  appreciation  of  the  sub 
ject  : 

"  Among  the  most  powerful,  most  wonderful,  and  most 
mysterious  agents  in  the  economy  of  the  physical  universe, 
is  the  magnet.  Its  attractive  properties,  its  perpetual  tend 
ency  to  the  poles  of  the  earth  and  of  the  heavens,  and  its 
exclusive  sympathies  with  one  of  the  mineral  productions  of 
the  earth,  have  been  brought  within  the  scope  of  human  obser 
vation  at  different  periods  of  the  history  of  mankind,  separated 
by  the  distance  of  many  centuries  from  each  other.  The 
attractive  power  of  the  magnet  was  known  in  ages  of  antiquity 
so  remote  that  it  transcends  even  the  remembrance  of  the  name 
of  its  first  discoverer,  and  the  time  of  its  accession  to  the  mass 
of  human  knowledge.  Its  polarity,  or,  at  least,  the  applica 
tion  of  that  property  to  the  purposes  of  navigation  beyond  the 
sight  of  land,  was  unknown  in  Europe,  and  probably  through 
out  the  world,  until  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era ;  and  its  horizontal  variation  from  the  tendency 
directly  to  the  pole  was  first  perceived  by  Christopher  Colum 
bus,  in  that  transcendent  voyage  of  discovery  which  gave  a 
new  hemisphere  to  the  industry  and  intelligence  of  civilized 
man  ;  —  an  incident  then  so  alarming  to  him  and  his  company, 
that,  but  for  the  inflexible  and  persevering  spirit  of  this  intrepid 
and  daring  mariner,  it  would  have  sunk  them  into  despair,  and 
buried  the  New  World  for  ages  upon  ages  longer  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  Old.  Centuries  have  again  passed  away, 
disclosing  gradually  new  properties  of  the  magnet  to  the 
ardent  and  eager  pursuit  of  human  curiosity,  still  stimulated 
by  constant  observation  of  the  phenomena  connected  with  this 
metallic  substance,  dug  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  yet  seem 
ing  more  and  more  to  elude  or  defy  all  the  ordinary  laws  of 
matter.  Thus,  in  the  process  of  observation  to  ascertain  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  315 

horizontal  variation  of  the  needle  from  its  polar  direction,  it 
was  found  that  it  differed  in  intensity  in  the  different  regions 
of  the  earth  and  the  seas ;  that  its  variations  were  affected 
by  different  causes,  some  tending  in  the  same  direction,  alter 
nately  east  and  west,  through  a  succession  of  years,  of  ages, 
even  of  centuries,  and  others  accomplishing  their  circle  of 
existence  from  day  to  day,  perhaps  from  hour  to  hour,  or  at 
stated  hours  of  the  day.  It  was  found  that  there  was  a  per 
pendicular  as  well  as  a  horizontal  deviation  from  the  polar 
direction  ;  and  it  became  a  matter  of  anxious  inquiry  to  ascer 
tain  the  intensity  both  of  the  dip  and  variation  of  the  needle 
at  every  spot  on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  It  was  inferred, 
from  the  different  intensities  of  variation  in  different  latitudes, 
that  there  were  magnetic  poles  not  coincident  with  those  of 
the  earth  ;  and  the  northern  of  these  poles  has  been  recently 
traced  to  its  actual  location  by  the  British  circumnavigators, 
Parry  arid  Ross. 

"  The  attractive  power,  the  polarity,  the  deviations  from  the 
polar  direction,  horizontal  and  perpendicular,  the  varieties 
even  of  these  deviations,  and  the  detection  of  the  northern 
magnetic  pole,  have  still  left  materials  for  further  observation, 
an,d  suggested  problems  for  solution  to  the  perseverance  and 
ingenuity  of  the  human  mind. 

"In  the  spring  of  1836  that  illustrious  philosopher  and 
statesman,  Baron  Alexander  Von  Humboldt,  addressed  to  the 
Duke  of  Sussex,  then  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  a  letter 
upon  the  means  of  perfecting  the  knowledge  of  terrestrial 
magnetism,  by  the  establishment  of  magnetic  stations  and  cor 
responding  observations ;  and  solicited  the  powerful  concur 
rence  of  the  Royal  Society  in  favor  of  the  labors  then  already, 
undertaken  by  a  learned  association  in  Germany,  and  which, 
radiating  at  once  from  several  great  scientific  central  points  in 
Europe,  might  lead  progressively  to  the  more  precise  knowl 
edge  of  the  laws  of  nature. " 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeds  to  state  the  subsequent 
proceedings  of  the  Koyal  Society,  and  the  measures 


316  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  British  government  had  taken  to  carry  into  effect 
the  views  of  that  society,  earnestly  recommending 
the  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  and  adds  : 

"  The  committee  would  hail,  with  feelings  of  hope  and 
encouragement,  the  virtual  alliance  of  great  and  mighty 
nations  for  this  union  of  efforts  in  the  promotion  of  the  cause 
of  science.  Long  enough  have  the  leagues  and  federations 
between  the  potentates  of  the  earth  been  confined  to  alliances, 
offensive  and  defensive,  to  promote  purposes  of  mutual  hatred 
and  hostility.  It  is  refreshing  to  the  friends  of  humanity  to 
witness  the  rise  and  progress  of  a  spirit  of  common  and  con 
certed  inquiry  into  the  secrets  of  material  nature,  the  results 
of  which  not  only  go  to  accumulate  the  mass  of  human  knowl 
edge,  but  to  harmonize  in  a  community  of  enjoyments  the 
varied  tribes  of  man  throughout  the  habitable  globe.  The 
invitation  to  participate  in  these  labors,  and  to  acquire  the 
credit  and  reputation  of  having  contributed  to  the  beneficial 
results  which  may  confidently  be  expected  from  them,  is  itself 
creditable  to  the  character  of  our  own  country. " 

In  conclusion,  the  committee  recommend  the  adop 
tion  of  a  resolution,  which  they  report,  appropriating 
twenty  thousand  dollars  for  the  establishment  of  five 
several  stations  for  making  observations  on  terrestrial 
magnetism  and  meteorology,  conformably  to  the  invi 
tation  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Great  Britain  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia. 

In  July,  1840,  at  the  closing  of  the  congressional 
session,  Mr.  Adams  thus  expressed  his  opinion  of  the 
state  of  public  affairs  :  "  The  late  session  of  Congress 
has  been  painful  to  me  beyond  all  former  experience, 
by  the  demonstration  it  has  given  of  degenerating 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  317 

institutions.  Parties  are  falling  into  profligate  fac 
tions.  I  have  seen  this  before  ;  but  the  worst  symp 
tom  now  is  the  change  in  the  manners  of  the  people. 
The  continuance  of  the  present  administration  will,  if 
accomplished,  open  wide  all  the  floodgates  of  corrup 
tion.  Will  a  change  produce  a  reform  ?  Pause  and 
ponder !  Slavery,  the  Indians,  the  public  lands,  the 
collection  and  disbursement  of  public  moneys,  the 
tariff,  and  foreign  affairs  —  what  is  to  become  of 
them?" 

In  September,  1840,  Mr.  Adams  remarked,  on  the 
electioneering  addresses  then  made,  preparatory  to  the 
next  election  of  President :  "  This  practice  of  itiner 
ant  speech-making  has  suddenly  broken  out  in  this 
country  to  a  fearful  extent.  Electioneering  for  the 
Presidency  has  spread  its  contagion  to  the  President 
himself,  to  his  now  only  competitor,  to  his  imme 
diate  predecessor,  to  the  candidates  Henry  Clay  and 
Daniel  Webster,  and  to  many  distinguished  members 
of  both  branches  of  Congress.  The  tendency  of  all 
this  is  to  the  corruption  of  popular  elections  both  by 
violence  and  fraud. " 

Again,  in  October  ensuing :  "  One  of  the  peculiar 
ities  of  the  present  time  is  that  the  principal  leaders 
of  the  political  parties  are  travelling  about  the  country 
from  state  to  state,  and  holding  forth,  like  Methodist 
preachers,  to  assembled  multitudes,  under  the  broad 
canopy  of  heaven.  Webster,  Clay,  W.  C.  Rives,  Silas 
Wright,  and  James  Buchanan,  are  among  the  first 
and  foremost  in  this  canvassing  oratory  ;  while  An 
drew  Jackson,  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  with  his  heads 


318     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

of  departments,  are  harping  on  another  string  of  the 
political  accordion,  by  writing  controversial  election 
eering  letters.  Besides  the  principal  leaders  of  the 
parties,  numerous  subaltern  officers  of  the  administra 
tion  are  summoned  to  the  same  service,  and,  instead 
of  attending  to  the  duties  of  their  offices,  roam,  recite, 
and  madden,  round  the  land." 

In  a  speech  made  on  the  28th  of  December,  1840, 
Mr.  Adams  severely  denounced  the  policy  pursued  by 
the  government  in  respect  of  the  navy  pension  fund  ; 
stating  that  it  amounted  to  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  ;  that,  without  any  authority,  it  had 
been  loaned  to  different  states,  and  vested  in  their 
stocks,  which,  for  the  most  part,  were  either  depre 
ciated  in  value,  wholly  lost,  or  unsalable.  That  fund, 
he  maintained,  was  a  sacred  trust,  and  proceeded 
to  state  fully  and  at  large  the  manner  in  which  it 
had  been  violated  without  authority. 

Mr.  Adams  then  went  on  to  state  the  proceedings  of 
the  Executive  relative  to  the  Smithsonian  fund.  He 
said  that  about  the  1st  of  September,  1838,  the  sum  of 
five  hundred  and  nine  thousand  dollars  had  been  depos 
ited  in  the  Mint  of  Philadelphia  in  gold,  —  in  mint- 
drops  ; —  a  sacred  trust,  which  the  United  States  had 
accepted,  on  the  pledge  of  their  faith  to  keep  it  whole, 
entire,  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  had  been  given  by 
a  foreigner.  Within  three  days  the  five  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars  were  on  their  way  to  Arkansas  to  make  a 
bank.  The  members  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House 
from  Arkansas  had  a  quick  scent  of  these  moneys 
coming  into  the  Treasury ;  and  care  had  been  taken 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.       .      319 

to  insert  into  a  bill  for  a  very  different  object  a  pro 
vision  authorizing  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  loan  to  the  states  that  sum  of  money  when 
it  should  come  into  the  Treasury.  This  was  three 
months  beforehand  ;  and  three  days  after  the  money 
was  received  the  plan  was  carried  into  execution. 

"  Now,  we  had  heard,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  of  Brit 
ish  gold  carrying  the  elections,  which  had  resulted, 
not  in  favor  of  the  present  incumbent  of  the  presi 
dential  chair,  but  against  him.  There  he  could  put 
his  finger  upon  five  hundred  and  nine  thousand  dol 
lars  of  British  gold,  which  contributed,  so  far  as  it 
could  go,  to  the  election  of  the  present  executive 
magistrate  ;  and  he  thought  he  had  shown  the  means 
by  which  it  was  done.  Go  to  the  State  of  Arkansas. 
The  dollars  are  not  there,  but  they  were  there,  and 
they  were  sent  there  from  the  Mint  of  the  United 
States.  Here  was  policy  —  profound  policy — econ 
omy  —  democracy  ;  and  all  this  accompanied  with  so 
great  a  horror  at  the  idea  of  assuming  state  debts,  that 
the  hair  of  the  gentlemen  stood  on  end  at  the  mere 
mention  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing.  Was  not 
here  a  debt  of  the  State  of  Arkansas  of  half  a  million 
of  dollars  ?  Had  not  the  general  government  assumed 
that  debt?  Had  they  not  employed  trust-money? 
If  Arkansas  should  declare  herself  insolvent  to-morrow, 
Congress  must  pay  that  debt ;  they  had  assumed  it." 

About  this  time,  Mr.  Adams,  in  some  of  his  writ 
ings,  thus  graphically  illustrates  the  political  influ 
ences  which  have  mainly  shaped  the  destinies  of  the 
United  States  :  "  A  very  curious  philosophical  history 


320  MEMOIR     OP    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

of  parties  might  be  made  by  giving  a  catalogue  rai- 
sonne  of  the  candidates  for  the  Presidency  voted  foi 
in  the  electoral  colleges  since  the  establishment  of  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  would  contain 
a  history  of  the  influences  of  the  presidential  office. 
Would  not  the  retrospect  furnish  practical  principles 
concerning  the  operation  of  the  constitution? — 1st. 
That  the  direct  and  infallible  path  to  the  Presidency 
is  military  service,  coupled  with  demagogue  policy. 
2d.  That,  in  the  absence  of  military  service,  dema 
gogue  policy  is  the  first  and  most  indispensable  element 
of  success,  and  the  art  of  party  drilling  the  second. 
3d.  That  the  drill  consists  in  combining  the  Southern 
interest  in  domestic  slavery  with  the  Northern  riotous 
democracy.  4th.  That  this  policy  and  drill,  first 
organized  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  accomplished  his  elec 
tion,  and  established  the  Virginia  dynasty  of  twenty- 
four  years  ;  —  a  perpetual  practical  contradiction  of  its 
own  principles.  5th.  That  the  same  policy  and  drill, 
invigorated  by  success  and  fortified  by  experience, 
has  now  placed  Martin  Van  Buren  in  the  President's 
chair,  and  disclosed  to  the  unprincipled  ambition  of 
the  North  the  art  of  rising  upon  the  principles  of  the 
South.  And  6th.  That  it  has  exposed  in  broad  day 
the  overruling  influence  of  the  institution  of  domestic 
slavery  upon  the  history  and  policy  of  the  Union." 

In  the  case  of  a  contested  election  Mr.  Adams 
remarked  :  "  The  conduct  of  a  majority  of  the  House 
has,  from  beginning  to  end,  been  governed  by  will, 
and  not  by  judgment ;  and  so  I  fear  it  will  be  always 
in  every  case  of  contested  elections/7 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  321 

"  The  speech  of  Horace  Everett,  of  Vermont,"  (made 
on  the  8th  June,  1836,  on  the  Indian  annuity  bill,)  said 
Mr.  Adams,  "  gives  a  perfectly  clear  and  distinct  expo 
sition  of  the  origin  and  causes  of  the  Florida  war,  and 
demonstrates,  beyond  all  possibility  of  being  gainsaid, 
that  the  wrong  of  the  war  is  on  our  side.  It  depresses 
the  spirits,  and  humiliates  the  soul,  that  this  war  is 
now  running  into  its  fifth  year,  has  cost  thirty  millions 
of  dollars,  has  successively  baffled  and  disgraced  all 
our  chief  military  generals, —  Gaines,  Scott,  Jesup, 
and  Macomb,  —  and  that  our  last  resources  now  are 
bloodhounds  and  no  quarter.  Sixteen  millions  of 
Anglo-Saxons  unable  to  subdue,  in  five  years,  by  force 
and  by  fraud,  by  secret  treachery  and  by  open  war, 
sixteen  hundred  savage  warriors !  There  is  a  disre 
gard  of  all  appearance  of  right,  in  our  transactions 
with  the  Indians,  which  I  feel  as  a  cruel  disparage 
ment  of  the  honor  of  my  country." 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1841,  Mr.  Adams,  refer 
ring  to  the  accounts  he  had  received  that  the  attend 
ance  at  the  Presidential  levees  was  much  smaller  than 
usual,  and  that  the  visitors  were  chiefly  from  among 
the  President's  old  adversaries,  the  Whigs,  remarked  : 

"  '  Donee  erisfelix  multos  numerabis  amicos 
Tempora  sifiterint  nubila  solus  eris.' 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  occasion  in  human  affairs,"  he 
added,  "which  more  uniformly  exemplifies  this  pro 
pensity  of  human  nature  than  the  exit  of  a  President 
of  the  United  States  from  office." 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1841,  there  arose,  inci- 

21 


322     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

dentally,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  debate 
upon  the  act  to  suppress  duelling.  Mr.  Wise,  of  Vir 
ginia,  had  said,  in  the  course  of  a  former  debate  : 
"  The  anti-duelling  law  is  producing  its  bitter  fruits. 
It  is  making  this  house  a  bear-garden.  We  have  an 
example  in  the  present  instance.  Here,  with  permis 
sion  of  the  chair  and  committee,  and  without  a  call  to 
order  from  anybody,  we  see  and  hear  one  member 
(Mr.  Johnson)  say  to  another  (Mr.  Duncan)  that  he 
had  been  branded  as  ^a  coward  on  this  floor.  The 
other  says  back  that  '  he  is  a  liar  ! '  And,  sir,  there 
the  matter  will  stop.  There  will  be  no  fight."  Be 
fore  proceeding  to  comment,  Mr.  Adams  called  for  the 
reading  of  this  statement,  as  reported  in  the  National 
Intelligencer.  On  which  Mr.  Wise  said  publicly,  in  the 
house,  "  That  is  a  correct  report/'* 

After  this  acknowledgment,  Mr.  Adams  proceeded 
to  remark  with  severity  on  this  statement  and  lan 
guage,  occasioning  an  excitement  in  the  house,  par 
ticularly  among  the  duellists,  which  belongs  to  the 
history  of  the  period.  After  stating  that  he  under 
stood  that  statement  and  language  "  as  maintaining 
that  duelling,  between  members  of  this  house,  for 
matters  passing  within  this  house,  is  a  practice  that 
ought  not  to  be  suppressed,"  he  continued  :  "I  main 
tain  the  contrary ;  and  I  maintain  it  for  the  independ 
ence  of  this  house,  for  my  own  independence,  for  the 
independence  of  those  with  whom  I  act,  for  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  members  from  the  Northern  section  of 

*  See,  for  all  the  proceedings  on  this  subject,  the  Congressional   Globe, 
vol.  ix.,  pp.  320—322. 


MEMOIR     OP    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  323 

this  country,  who  not  only  abhor  duelling  in  theory, 
but  in  practice ;  in  consequence  of  which  members  from 
other  sections  are  perpetually  insulting  them  on  this 
floor,  under  the  impression  that  the  insult  will  not  be 
resented.'* 

Here  Mr.  Campbell,  of  South  Carolina,  as  the  re 
porter  states,  called  Mr.  Adams  to  order.  The  chair 
man  said  something,  of  which  not  a  word  could  be 
heard,  the  house  being  in  such  a  state  of  tempestu 
ous  uproar.  When  the  voice  of  Mr.  Adams  again 
caught  the  ear  of  the  reporter,  he  was  proceeding  as 
follows  : 

"  Would  you  smother  discussion  on  the  duelling-  law  ?  There 
is  not  a  point  in  the  affairs  of  this  nation  more  important  than 
this  very  practice  of  duelling,  —  considered  as  a  point  of  honor 
in  one  part  of  the  Union,  and  a  point  of  infamy  in  another, — 
with  its  consequences.  I  say  there  is  no  more  important  sub 
ject  that  can  go  forth,  North  and  South,  East  and  West ;  and 
I  therefore  take  my  issue  upon  it.  I  have  come  here  deter 
mined  to  do  so  between  the  different  portions  of  this  house, 
in  order  to  see  whether  this  practice  is  to  be  continued  ; 
whether  the  members  from  that  section  of  the  Union  whose 
principles  are  against  duelling  are  to  be  insulted,  upon  every 
topic  of  discussion,  because  it  is  supposed  that  the  insult  will 
not  be  resented,  and  that  'there  will  be  no  fight.' 

Mr.  Adams  here  called  for  the  reading  of  "  the  act 
to  suppress  duelling  ;  "  which  the  clerk  having  read, 
he  proceeded  : 

"  I  was  going  on  to  say  that  the  reason  why  I  had  brought 
this  subject  into  the  discussion  is  because  it  is  most  intimately 
connected  with  all  the  transactions  in  this  house  and  this 
nation ;  and  because  I  think  it  time  to  settle  this  question 


324  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

between  the  duellists  and  non-duellists,  whoever  they  may  be. 
I  say  that,  in  consequence  of  my  principles,  and  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  principles  of  a  very  large  portion  of  the  people  in 
that  part  of  the  country  from  which  I  came,  I  will  not,  as 
regards  the  approaching  administration,  put  myself  under  the 
lead  of  any  man  who  considers  the  duelling  law  in  this  district 
as  having  borne  any  bitter  fruits  whatever.  It  may  not, 
indeed,  be  sufficiently  potent  in  its  operation  to  prevent  the 
thirst  for  blood  which  follows  offensive  words  ;  but  I  believe 
it  has  prevented,  and  will  prevent,  any  such  occurrences  as 
we  have  witnessed  here.  But,  as  it  bears  upon  the  affairs  of 
the  nation,  I  am  not  willing  to  sit  any  longer  here,  and  see 
other  members  from  my  own  section  of  the  country,  or  those 
who  may  be  my  successors  here,  made  subject  to  any  such 
law  as  the  law  of  the  duellist.  I  am  unwilling  that  they 
should  not  have  full  freedom  of  speech  in  this  house  on  all 
occasions  —  as  much  so  as  the  primest  duellist  in  the  land.  I 
do  not  want  to  hear  perpetual  intimations,  when  a  man  from 
one  part  of  the  country  means  to  insult  another  coming  from 
other  parts  of  the  country,  as,  '  I  am  ready  to  answer  here  or 
elsewhere  ; ?  and  '  The  gentleman  knows  where  I  am  to  be 
found;7  saying,  as  the  gentleman  from  Maryland  (Mr.  W.  C. 
Johnson)  did  just  now,  that  he  would  call  to  account  any  per 
son  who  dared  make  allusion  to  what  had  taken  place  between 
him  and  another  member  of  this  house.  I  do  not  intend  to 
hear  that  any  more,  for  myself  or  others,  if  I  can  help  it. 
Therefore  I  move  to  bring  the  matter  up  for  full  discussion 
here,  whether  we  are  to  be  twitted  and  taunted  with  remarks 
that  a  man  is  ready  to  meet  us  here  or  elsewhere.  It  goes  to 
the  independence  of  this  house ;  it  goes  to  the  independence 
of  every  individual  member  of  this  house  ;  it  goes  to  the  right 
of  speech  and  freedom  of  debate  in  this  house ;  and  I  felt 
myself  bound  to  bear  my  testimony  in  the  most  decided  man 
ner  against  the  practice  of  duelling,  or  anything  in  the  shape 
of  even  a  virtual  challenge  taking  place  in  this  house,  now 
and  forever.  If  the  committee  think  proper  to  put  me  down, 
after  a  debate  of  three  weeks,  involving  almost  every  topic 
under  the  sun,  and  in  which  not  one  man  has  been  called  to 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  325 

order,  I  must  submit.  It  shall  go  out  to  the  country,  and  I 
am  willing  that  the  sober  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  shall 
be  my  final  judge  on  this  subject." 

Mr.  Adams,  after  having  recapitulated  his  course 
of  proceedings  on  various  topics,  and  explained  his 
motives  and  their  relations  on  former  occasions,  and 
his  present  general  views  on  those  subjects,  closes  his 
remarks  on  duelling  by  declaring  that  what  he  had 
said  had  been  from  motives  of  pure  public  spirit,  with 
no  disposition  to  offend  any  gentleman,  and  least  of 
all  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Wise)  ;  but 
that  he  had  felt  it  his  duty  to  say  what  he  had  said, 
because  he  believed  that  the  application  of  the 
principle  of  duelling,  as  regards  different  portions  of 
this  house,  is  such  that  it  must  be  discarded  ;  that 
duelling  must  be  considered  as  a  crime,  and  that  it 
must  not  be  countenanced  by  professions  of  any  neces 
sity  for  its  existence. 

In  January  and  March,  1841,  Mr.  Adams  delivered 
his  celebrated  argument  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  in  the  case  of  the  United  States, 
appellants,  against  Cinque  and  others,  appellees.  This 
was  afterwards  published  at  length.  In  it  he  publicly 
arraigned  before  that  court  and  the  civilized  world  the 
conduct  of  the  then  existing  administration,  for  having, 
in  all  their  proceedings  relating  to  these  unfortunate 
Africans,  exhibited  sympathy  for  one  of  the  parties, 
and  antipathy  for  the  other ;  sympathy  for  the  white, 
antipathy  to  the  black ;  sympathy  for  the  slaveholders, 
in  place  of  protection  for  the  unfortunate  and  op 
pressed.  It  is  impossible  by  any  abstract  or  outline 


326  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

to  do  justice  to  the  laborious  ability  with  which  this 
argument  is  sustained.  The  just  severity  with  which 
he  scrutinizes  the  proceedings  of  the  Executive  and 
the  demands  of  the  Spanish  Minister,  the  complete 
ness  with  which  he  vindicates  for  these  Africans  their 
right  to  freedom,  —  the  extensive  research  into  the 
law  of  nations,  and  the  broad  principles  of  eternal 
justice,  on  which  he  supports  their  claim  to  be  liber 
ated,  were  probably  not  excelled  by  any  public  effort 
at  that  period,  whether  of  the  bar  or  the  senate. 
He  concluded  with  the  following  touching  remin 
iscences  of  distinguished  members  of  the  bench  and 
the  bar,  with  whom  in  former  times  he  had  been 
associated  :* 

"  May  it  please  your  honors  :  On  the  tth  of  February,  1804, 
now  more  than  thirty-seven  years  past,  my  name  was  entered, 
and  yet  stands  recorded,  on  both  the  rolls,  as  one  of  the  attor 
neys  and  counsellors  of  this  court.  Five  years  later,  in  Feb 
ruary  and  March,  1809,  I  appeared  for  the  last  time  before 
this  court,  in  defence  of  the  cause  of  justice  and  of  important 
rights,  in  which  many  of  my  fellow-citizens  had  property  to  a 
large  amount  at  stake.  Very  shortly  afterwards  I  was  called 
to  the  discharge  of  other  duties,  first  in  distant  lands,  and  in 
later  years  within  our  own  country,  but  in  different  depart 
ments  of  her  government.  Little  did  I  imagine  that  I  should 
ever  again  be  required  to  claim  the  right  of  appearing  in  the 
capacity  of  an  officer  of  this  court ;  yet  such  has  been  the 
dictate  of  my  destiny,  and  I  appear  again  to  plead  the  cause 
of  justice,  and  now  of  liberty  and  life,  in  behalf  of  many  of 
my  fellow-men,  before  that  same  court  which,  in  a  former  age, 
1  had  addressed  in  support  of  rights  of  property.  I  stand 
again,  I  trust  for  the  last  time,  before  the  same  court.  '  Hie 
ccesius,  artemque  repono.'  I  stand  before  the  same  court,  but 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  327 

not  before  the  same  judges,  nor  aided  by  the  same  associates, 
nor  resisted  by  the  same  opponents.  As  I  cast  my  eyes  along 
those  seats  of  honor  and  of  public  trust  now  occupied  by  you, 
they  seek  in  vain  for  one  of  those  honored  and  honorable  per 
sons  whose  indulgence  listened  then  to  my  voice.  Marshall, 
Gushing,  Chase,  Washington,  Johnson,  Livingston,  Todd, — 
where  are  they?  Where  is  that  eloquent  statesman  and 
learned  lawyer  who  was  my  associate  counsel  in  the  manage 
ment  of  that  cause,  Robert  Goodloe  Harper  ?  Where  is  that 
brilliant  luminary,  so  long  the  pride  of  Maryland  and  of  the 
American  bar,  then  my  opposing  counsel,  Luther  Martin  ? 
Where  is  the  excellent  clerk  of  that  day,  whose  name  has  been 
inscribed  on  the  shores  of  Africa  as  a  monument  of  his  abhor 
rence  of  the  African  slave-trade,  Elias  B.  C  aid  well  ?  Where 
is  the  marshal  —  where  are  the  criers  of  the  court?  Alas! 
where  is  one  of  the  very  judges  of  the  court,  arbiter  of  life 
and  death,  before  whom  I  commenced  this  anxious  argument, 
even  now  prematurely  closed  ?  Where  are  they  all  ?  Gone 
— gone — all  gone!  Gone  from  the  services  which  in  their 
day  and  generation  they  faithfully  tendered  to  their  country. 
From  the  excellent  characters  which  they  sustained  in  life,  so 
far  as  I  have  had  the  means  of  knowing,  I  humbly  hope,  and 
fondly  trust,  they  have  gone  to  receive  the  rewards  of  blessed 
ness  on  high. 

"In  taking,  then,  my  final  leave  of  this  bar,  and  of  this  hon 
orable  court,  I  can  only  ejaculate  a  fervent  petition  to  Heaven 
that  every  member  of  it  may  go  to  his  final  account  with  as 
little  of  earthly  frailty  to  answer  for  as  those  illustrious  dead  ; 
and  that  every  one,  after  the  close  of  a  long  and  virtuous 
career  in  this  world,  may  be  received  at  the  portals  of  the 
next  with  the  approving  sentence,  '  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord.'  " 


CHAPTER    XII. 

WILLIAM    HENRY    HARRISON    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. HIS 

DEATH. VICE-PRESIDENT     JOHN     TYLER     SUCCEEDS. REMARKS     OF 

MR.    ADAMS     ON     THE     OCCASION. HIS     SPEECH     ON     THE     CASE     OF 

ALEXANDER      M'LEOD. HIS      VIEWS      CONCERNING      COMMONPLACE 

BOOKS. HIS      LECTURE     ON      CHINA      AND      CHINESE      COMMERCE*. 

REMARKS  ON  THE  STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY,  AND  HIS  DUTY  IN  RE 
LATION  TO  IT.  —  HIS  PRESENTATION  OF  A  PETITION  FOR  THE  DIS 
SOLUTION  OF  THE  UNION,  AND  THE  VOTE  TO  CENSURE  HIM  FOR 

DOING     IT. HIS      THIRD    REPORT    ON    MR.     SMITHSON'S    BEQUEST. 

HIS   SPEECH    ON    THE    MISSION    TO    MEXICO. 

ON  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  William  Henry  Harri 
son,  of  Ohio,  was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  Vice-President ; 
each  of  whom  had  two  hundred  and  thirty-four  out  of 
two  hundred  and  ninety-four  votes,  —  the  whole  num 
ber, —  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  the  only  other  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  had  sixty.  Mr.  Adams  remarked 
that  this  inauguration  was  celebrated  with  demonstra 
tions  of  popular  feeling  unexampled  since  that  of 
Washington,  in  1789,  and  at  the  same  time  with  so 
much  order  and  tranquillity  that  not  the  slightest 
symptom  of  conflicting  passions  occurred  to  disturb  the 
enjoyments  of  the  day.  Many  thousands  of  people 
from  the  adjoining,  and  considerable  numbers  from  dis 
tant  states,  were  assembled  to  witness  the  ceremony. 

(328) 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  329 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1841,  —  precisely  one  calen 
dar  month  after  his  inauguration,  —  President  Harri 
son  died.  On  this  occasion  Mr.  Adams  thus  expressed 
himself : 

"  The  first  impression  of  this  event  here,  where  it  occurred, 
is  of  the  frailty  of  all  human  enjoyments,  and  the  awful  vicis 
situdes  woven  into  the  lot  of  mortal  man.  He  had  reached, 
but  one  short  month  since,  the  pinnacle  of  honor  and  power  in 
his  own  country.  He  lies  a  lifeless  corpse  in  the  palace  pro 
vided  by  his  country  for  his  abode.  He  was  amiable  and 
benevolent.  Sympathy  for  his  suffering  and  his  fate  is  the 
prevailing  sentiment  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  bereavement 
and  distress  of  his  family  are  felt  intensely,  albeit  they  are 
strangers  here,  and  known  scarcely  to  any  one. 

"  The  influence  of  this  event  upon  the  condition  and  history 
of  the  country  can  scarcely  be  foreseen.  It  makes  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  acting 
President  of  the  Union  for  four  years,  less  one  month. 

"Tyler  is  a  political  sectarian,  of  the  slave-driving,  Virgin 
ian,  Jeffersonian  school ;  principled  against  all  improvement ; 
with  all  the  interests  and  passions  and  vices  of  slavery  rooted 
in  his  moral  and  political  constitution ;  with  talents  not  above 
mediocrity,  and  a  spirit  incapable  of  expansion  to  the  dimen 
sions  of  the  station  on  which  he  has  been  cast  by  the  hand  of 
Providence,  unseen,  through  the  apparent  agency  of  chance. 
To  that  benign  and  healing  hand  of  Providence  I  trust,  in 
humble  hope  of  the  good  which  it  always  brings  forth  out  of 
evil.  In  upwards  of  half  a  century  this  is  the  first  instance 
of  a  Vice-President  being  called  to  act  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  brings  to  the  test  that  provision  of  the 
constitution  which  places  in  the  executive  chair  a  man  never 
thought  of  for  it  by  anybody. 

"  Tyler  deems  himself  qualified  to  perform  the  duties  and 
exercise  the  powers  and  office  of  President,  on  the  death  of 
President  Harrison,  without  any  other  oath  than  that  which 
he  has  taken  as  Vice-President ;  yet,  as  doubts  might  arise, 


330     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS. 

and  for  greater  caution,  he  will  take  and  subscribe  the  oath 
as  President.  May  the  blessing  of  Heaven  upon  this  nation 
attend  and  follow  this  providential  revolution  in  its  govern 
ment  !  For  the  present  it  is  not  joyous,  but  grievous. 

''The  moral  condition  of  this  country  is  degenerating,  and 
especially  through  the  effect  of  that  part  of  its  constitution 
which  is  organized  by  the  process  of  unceasing  elections. 
The  spirit  of  the  age  and  country  is  to  accumulate  power  in 
the  hands  of  the  multitude :  to  shorten  terms  of  service  in 
high  public  places  ;  to  multiply  elections,  and  diminish  exec 
utive  power ;  to  weaken  all  agencies  protective  of  property,  or 
repressive  of  crime  ;  to  abolish  capital  punishments  and  im 
prisonment  for  debt.  Slavery,  intemperance,  land-jobbing, 
bankruptcy,  and  sundry  controversies  with  Great  Britain, 
constitute  the  materials  for  the  history  of  John  Tyler's  admin 
istration.  But  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  man  will 
form  no  part  of  his  policy,  and  the  improvement  of  his  country 
will  be  an  object  of  his  most  inveterate  and  inflexible  opposi 
tion." 

In  September,  1841,  one  Alexander  McLeod  was 
imprisoned  at  Lockport,  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
under  an  indictment  for  murder.  The  following  cir 
cumstances  were  the  occasion  of  these  proceedings. 
A  steamer,  called  the  Caroline,  owned  and  fitted  out 
at  Buffalo,  had  been  engaged  in  aiding  sertain  insur 
gents  against  the  Canadian  government  with  military 
apparatus  and  provisions  ;  and  an  expedition,  sent  by 
the  British  authorities,  had  cut  the  Caroline  out  of  the 
port  of  Buffalo,  set  her  on  fire,  and  sent  her  floating 
over  the  Niagara  Falls.  In  the  fight  which  occurred 
one  of  the  men  on  board  the  Caroline  was  killed. 

The  excitement  was  general  and  excessive  through 
out  the  State  of  New  York.  McLeod  was  the  leader  in 
this  expedition,  and  having,  after  the  lapse  of  some 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCT    ADAMS.  331 

time,  visited  that  state,  he  was  arrested,  imprisoned, 
indicted,  and  the  popular  voice  was  clamorous  that  he 
should  be  hanged.  Notwithstanding  the  British  gov 
ernment  had  declared  that  he  had  acted  under  their 
authority  as  a  military  man,  simply  obeying  the  ordei 
of  his  superiors,  a  like  state  of  feeling  and  purpose 
had  extended  to  Congress,  and  a  resolution  had  been 
introduced  requesting  the  President  to  inform  the 
House  ' '  whether  any  officer  of  the  army,  or  the  Attor 
ney-General,  had  been  directed  to  visit  the  State  of 
New  York  for  any  purpose  connected  with  the  impris 
onment  or  trial  of  Alexander  McLeod  ;  or  whether, 
by  any  executive  measures,  the  British  government 
had  been  given  to  understand  that  McLeod  would  be 
released." 

Fearing  that  the  result  of  these  proceedings  might 
lead  to  a  great  and  most  formidable  issue  of  peace 
and  war  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
Mr.  Adams  took  this  occasion  to  express  his  views 
on  the  subject. 

"  The  first  question  which  occurs  to  me  is,"  he  said,  "  what 
is  the  object  of  this  resolution,  and  for  what  purpose  has  the 
bouse  been  agitated  with  it  from  the  commencement  of  the 
session  to  this  day  ?  The  gentleman  who  offered  it  has  dis 
claimed  all  party  purposes  ;  he  breathes  in  a  lofty  atmos 
phere,  elevated  high  above  that  of  party.  But  what  sort  of 
comprehension  had  both  the  friends  and  the  opponents  of  the 
resolution  put  upon  it?  No  party  complexion  I  0,  no  1  No  ; 
it  was  patriotism  —  pure  patriotism  —  patriotism  pure  and 
undefiled  !  Well  ;  I  am  disposed  to  give  gentlemen  on  all 
sides  of  the  house  credit  for  whatever  patriotism  they  pro 
fess  ;  but  sure  it  is  that  patriotism  is  a  coat  of  manv 


332  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

colors,  and  suited  to  very  different  complexions  ;  and,  if  it  had 
not  been  for  that  unqualified  profession  of  patriotism  and  no 
party,  which  had  rung  through  this  house,  from  every  gentle 
man  who  had  supported  this  resolution,  I  should  have  felt 
bound  to  believe  it  the  rankest  party  measure  that  ever  waa 
introduced  into  this  house. 

"  What  is  the  object  of  this  resolution  ?  It  is  to  make  an 
issue  with  Great  Britain  —  an  issue  of  right  or  wrong  —  upon 
the  affair  of  burning  the  Caroline.  No,  sir ;  never  shall  my 
voice  be  for  going  to  war  upon  that  issue.  I  will  not  go  to 
war  upon  an  issue  upon  which,  when  we  go  to  a  third  power 
to  arbitrate  upon  it,  they  will  say  we  are  wrong.  The  issue 
will  be  decided  against  us.  We  shall  be  told  it  is  not  the 
thing  for  us  to  quarrel  about. 

"  I  have  not  the  time,  were  I  possessed  of  the  information, 
to  give  a  history  of  the  affair  of  the  Caroline  ;  and  it  is  known 
as  much  to  every  member  of  the  house  as  it  is  to  me.  We 
have  heard  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  territorial  rights,  and 
independence,  and  of  state  rights.  But,  in  a  question  of  that 
kind,  other  nations  do  not  look  much  to  your  state  rights 
nor  to  your  independence  questions.  They  will  not  talk  of 
your  independence  ;  but  they  will  say  who  is  right,  and  who 
is  wrong.  Who  struck  the  first  blow  ?  I  take  it,  will  be  the 
main  question  with  them.  I  take  it  that  in  the  late  affair  the 
Caroline  was  in  hostile  array  against  the  British  government, 
and  that  the  parties  concerned  in  it  were  employed  in  acts  of 
war  against  it ;  and  I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  very  learned  opin 
ion  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  of  New  York  (not,  I  hear,  the 
Chief  Justice,  but  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  state), 
that  there  was  no  act  of  war  committed.  Nor  do  I  subscribe 
to  it  that  every  nation  goes  to  war  only  on  issuing  a  declara 
tion  or  proclamation  of  war.  This  is  not  the  fact.  Nations 
often  wage  war  for  years  without  issuing  any  declaration  of 
war.  The  question  is  here  not  upon  a  declaration  of  war,  but 
acts  of  war.  And  I  say  that,  in  the  judgment  of  all  impartial 
men  of  other  nations,  we  shall  be  held  as  a  nation  responsible  ; 
that  the  Caroline  there  was  in  a  state  of  war  against  Great 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  333 

Britain  ;  for  purposes  of  war,  and  the  worst  kind  of  war,  —  to 
sustain  an  insurrection  —  I  will  not  say  rebellion,  because 
rebellion  is  a  crime,  and  because  I  heard  them  talked  of  as 
'  patriots/  Yes;  and  I  have  heard,  in  the  course  of  the  dis 
cussion  here;  these  patriots  represented  as  carrying  on  a  right 
eous  cause,  and  that  we  ought  to  have  assisted  them ;  that 
we  ought  to  have  given  them  that  assistance  that  a  nation 
fighting  for  its  liberty  is  entitled  to  from  the  generosity  of 
other  nations.  Well,  admit  that  merely  for  a  moment.  If  we 
were  bound  to  do  it,  we  were  bound  to  do  it  avowedly  and 
above-board.  But  we  disclaimed  all  intention  of  taking  any 
part  in  it ;  and  yet  there  was  very  little  disguise  about  this 
expedition,  and  that  this  vessel  was  there  for  the  purposes  of 
hostility  against  the  Canadian  government.  I  say,  therefore, 
that  we  struck  the  first  blow ;  and  if,  instead  of  pressing  this 
matter  to  a  war,  we  were  to  refer  it  to  a  third  power,  even  if 
it  should  be  to  a  European  republic,  —  if  any  such  thing  is 
remaining,  —  and  should  say  there  had  been  an  invasion  of  our 
territory,  they  would  ask  us  a  question  something  like  that 
which  was  put  to  a  character  in  a  play  of  Moliere  :  Que  diable 
allait  ilfaire  dans  cetle  galere? — What  the  devil  had  we  to  do 
in  that  galley  ? 

"Now,  I  think  the  arbitrator  would  say,  "What  the  devil 
had  you  to  do  with  that  steamboat?"  He  would  say  that  we 
struck  the  first  blow.  Now,  admit  that,  —  and  none  of  your 
state  rights  men  can  deny  it,  —  admit  that,  and  all  the  rest 
follows  of  course.  They  will  say  it  was  wrong  —  abstractly, 
if  you  please.  Talking  of  abstractions,  it  was  wrong  for  an 
expedition  to  come  over  and  burn  the  steamboat,  and  send 
her  over  the  falls.  But  what  was  your  steamboat  about? 
What  had  she  been  doing?  What  was  she  to  do  the  next 
morning  ?  And  what  ought  you  to  do  ?  You  have  reparation 
to  make  for  all  the  men,  and  for  all  the  arms  and  implements 
of  war,  which  we  were  transporting,  and  going  to  transport, 
to  the  other  side,  to  foment  and  instigate  rebellion  in  Canada. 
That  is  what  the  third  party  would  say  to  us.  And  it  would 
come,  in  the  end,  after  all  the  blood  and  treasure  had  been 
wasted  by  a  war  between  the  two  countries,  to  this,  that  we 


334  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

must  shake  hands  and  drink  champagne  together,  after  having 
made  a  mutual  apology  for  mutual  transgression.  That  is  the 
way  things  are  settled  between  individuals,  — '  If  you  said  so, 
why,  I  said  so/ — and  thus  the  dispute  is  amicably  settled.  So 
we  should  have  to  do  with  this  national  matter ;  for  there  is 
not  any  great  difference  in  the  essentials  of  quarrelling  and 
making  up  between  nations  and  individuals/' 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  to  another  point  of 
view  in  which  he  objected  to  this  resolution.  He 
said : 

"  A  prodigious  affair  has  been  made  of  this  matter,  as  if  the 
government  of  the  United  States  had  outraged  the  State  of 
New  York,  because  the  great  empire  State  of  New  York  had 
undertaken  to  say  that  she  would  hang  McLeod,  whatevei 
Great  Britain  or  the  general  government  might  do.  Yes ; 
whatever  they  might  do,  the  great  empire  State  of  New  York 
would  hang  McLeod  !  That  was  the  language. 

"  What,  sir,  I  ask,  is  the  object  of  this  resolution  ?  To 
inquire  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  whether  any 
officer  of  the  army,  or  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United 
States,  since  the  4th  of  March  last,  has  visited  the  State  of 
New  York  for  any  purpose  connected  with  the  trial  of  Alex 
ander  McLeod.  What  then  ?  Has  not  the  President  a  right 
to  send  the  Attorney-General  to  New  York  on  that  or  any 
other  subject  ?  Where  is  the  constitutional  provision  prohib 
iting  him  from  sending  the  Attorney-General  to  New  York  on 
that  or  any  other  of  the  subjects  which  are  before  the  judicial 
courts  of  that  state  ?  Yes,  the  Attorney-General  has  been 
sent  there,  and  we  have  his  instructions.  And  I  have  heard 
here,  on  the  part  of  some  of  my  forty  friends  from  New  York, 
a  great  deal  about  the  conscious  dignity  and  honor  of  this 
Empire  Slate  of  New  York.  I  am  not  very  fond  of  that  term 
'empire  state,'  in  the  language  of  this  Union  ;  and  I  say  that 
if  there  is  an  '  empire  state '  in  the  Union,  it  is  Delaware. 
To  be  magniloquent,  and  talk  about  the  empire  state,  may 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  335 

we\\  become  the  forty  gentlemen  who  represent  the  state  on 
this  floor,  having  reference  to  their  own  numbers,  and  the 
numbers  of  their  constituents,  or  to  the  extent,  fertility,  and 
beauty,  of  her  soil ;  yet  this  is  a  distinction  not  recognized  in 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  They  are  all,  as  mem 
bers  of  this  Union,  equal,  and  the  State  of  Delaware  has  as 
good  a  right  to  be  called  the  '  empire  state '  as  New  York. 
Now,  if  my  forty  friends  from  New  York  choose  to  call  it  the 
'  empire  state/  I  will  not  quarrel  with  them.  It  is  only  as  to 
consequences  that  I  enter  my  caveat  against  th*e  too  frequent 
use  of  those  terms  on  this  floor ;  for  there  is  meaning  in  those 
words,  '  empire  state,'  when  used  among  co-estates,  more  than 
meets  the  ear. 

"  Suppose  that  it  was  in  Delaware  that  such  an  event  had 
occurred  ;  do  you  suppose  my  friend  here  (Mr.  Rodney)  from 
Delaware  would  have  offered  such  a  resolution  as  this  ?  And, 
by  the  terms  of  the  resolution,  I  should  presume  my  friends 
from  New  York  think  there  is  a  little  more  dignity  and  power 
in  forty  representatives  than  only  one." 

In  September,  1841,  a  plan  for  a  newly-invented 
Commonplace  Book,  as  an  improvement  upon  Locke's, 
was  brought  to  Mr.  Adams  for  his  recommendatory 
notice ;  which  he  declined,  from  a  general  rule  he  had 
adopted  on  the  subject,  but  said  he  thought  it  might 
be  very  useful,  if  a  practical  system  of  such  a  manual 
could  be  simplified  to  the  intellect  and  industry  of 
common  minds,  which  he  doubted.  "I  had  occu 
pied  and  amused  a  long  life/'  said  he,  "in  the 
search  of  such  a  compendious  wisdom-box,  but  without 
being  able  to  find  or  make  it.  I  had  made  myself 
more  than  one  of  Locke's  Commonplace  Books,  but 
never  used  any  one  of  them.  I  had  learnt  and  prac 
tised  Byrom's  Shorthand  Writing,  but  no  one  could 


336  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

read  it  but  myself.  I  had  kept  accounts  by  double 
entry,  —  day-book,  journal,  and  ledger,  with  cash- 
book,  bank-book,  house-book,  and  letter-book.  I  had 
made  extracts,  copies,  translations,  and  quotations, 
more  perhaps  than  other  man  living,  without  ever 
being  able  to  pack  up  my  knowledge  or  my  labors 
in  any  methodical  order  ;  and  now  doubt  whether  I 
might  not  Irave  employed  my  time  more  profitably  in 
some  one  great,  well-compacted,  comprehensive  pur 
suit,  adapting  every  hour  of  labor  to  the  attainment 
of  some  great  end/' 

In  December,  1841,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  before 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  a  lecture  on  the 
war  then  existing  between  Great  Britain  and  China. 
The  principles  stated  and  maintained  in  that  lecture 
were  so  much  in  advance  of  the  opinions  entertained 
at  the  time,  that  it  is  believed  to  have  been  published 
in  but  a  single  newspaper  in  this  country  or  in  Europe, 
and  never  in  a  pamphlet  form,  except  by  the  proprie 
tors  of  the  Chinese  Repository,  published  in  Macao, 
China,  in  May,  1842.  Though  his  views  were  ridi 
culed  or  repudiated  by  many  when  delivered,  they 
are  at  this  day  acknowledged  ;  and  are  made  some  of 
the  chief  grounds  of  the  justification  of  that  invasion 
of  the  Chinese  empire  now  apparently  in  successful 
progress.  The  subject  is  of  preeminent  importance, 
and  is  canvassed  with  that  laborious  research  and 
independence  eminently  characteristic  of  the  author. 

In  this  lecture,  after  controverting  the  doctrine  of 
an  eminent  French  writer,  who  contended  that  there 
Was  no  such  thing  as  international  law,  and  that  the 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  337 

word  law  is  not  applicable  to  the  obligations  incum 
bent  upon  nations,  on  the  ground  that  law  is  a  rule 
of  conduct  prescribed  by  a  superior  ;  and  that  nations, 
being  independent,  acknowledge  no  superior,  anr1 
have  no  common  sovereign  from  whom  they  can 
receive  law,  —  Mr.  Adams  proceeds  to  maintain  that 
"by  the  law  of  nations  is  to  be  understood,  not 
one  code  of  laws,  binding  alike  on  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  but  a  system  of  rules  varying  according 
to  the  character  and  condition  of  the  parties  con 
cerned."  There  is  a  law  of  nations,  among  Christian 
communities,  which  is  the  law  recognized  by  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States  as  obligatory  upon 
them  in  their  intercourse  with  European  states  and 
colonies.  But  we  have  a  different  law  of  nations 
regulating  our  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes  on 
this  continent ;  another,  between  us  and  the  woolly- 
headed  natives  of  Africa  ;  another,  with  the  Barbary 
powers  ;  another,  with  the  flowery  land,  or  Celestial 
empire.  This  last  is  the  nation  with  which  Great 
Britain  is  now  at  war.  Then,  reasoning  on  the  rights 
of  property,  established  by  labor,  by  occupancy,  and 
by  compact,  he  maintains  that  the  right  of  exchange, 
barter,  —  in  other  words,  of  commerce,  —  necessarily 
follows ;  that  a  state  of  nature  among  men  is  a  state  of 
peace  ;  the  pursuit  of  happiness  man's  natural  right ; 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  men  to  contribute  as  much  as 
is  in  their  power  to  one  another's  happiness,  and 
that  there  is  no  other  way  by  which  they  can  so 
well  contribute  to  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  one 
another  as  by  commerce,  or  the  mutual  exchange 

22 


338     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

of  equivalents.     These  views  and   principles  he  thus 
illustrates : 

"  The  duty  of  commercial  intercourse  between  nations  is 
laid  down  in  terms  sufficiently  positive  by  Vattel,  but  he 
afterwards  qualifies  it  by  a  restriction,  which,  unless  itself 
restricted,  annuls  it  altogether,  lie  says  that,  although  the 
general  duty  of  commercial  intercourse  is  incumbent  upon 
nations,  yet  every  nation  may  exclude  any  particular  branch 
or  article  of  trade  which  it  may  deem  injurious  to  its  own 
interest.  This  cannot  be  denied.  But,  then,  a  nation  may 
multiply  these  particular  exclusions,  until  they  become  gene 
ral,  and  equivalent  to  a  total  interdict  of  commerce  ;  and  this, 
time  out  of  mind,  has  been  the  inflexible  policy  of  the  Chinese 
empire.  So  says  Vattel,  without  affixing  any  note  of  censure 
upon  it.  Yet  it  is  manifestly  incompatible  with  the  position 
which  he  had  previously  laid  down,  that  commercial  inter 
course  between  nations  is  a  moral  obligation  incumbent  upon 
them  all. 

"  The  empire  of  China  is  said  to  extend  over  three  hundred 
millions  of  human  beings.  It  is  said  to  cover  a  space  of  seven 
millions  of  square  miles  —  about  four  times  larger  than  the 
surface  of  these  United  States.  The  people  are  not  Chris 
tians,  nor  can  a  Christian  nation  appeal  to  the  principles  of 
a  common  faith  to  settle  the  question  of  right  and  wrong 
between  them.  The  moral  obligation  of  commercial  inter 
course  between  nations  is  founded  entirely  and  exclusively 
upon  the  Christian  precept  to  love  your  neighbor  as  yourself. 
With  this  principle,  you  cannot  refuse  commercial  intercourse 
with  your  neighbor,  because,  commerce  consisting  of  a  vol- 
untar37  exchange  of  property  mutually  beneficial  to  both  par 
ties,  excites  in  both  the  selfish  and  the  social  propensities, 
and  enables  each  of  the  parties  to  promote  the  happiness  of 
his  neighbors  by  the  same  act  whereby  he  provides  for  his 
own.  But,  China  not  being  a  Christian  nation,  its  inhabitants 
do  not  consider  themselves  bound  by  the  Christian  precept  to 
love  their  neighbors  as  themselves.  The  right  of  commercial 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  339 

intercourse  with  them  reverts  not  to  the  execrable  principle 
of  Hobbes,  that  the  state  of  nature  is  a  state  of  war,  where 
every  one  has  a  right  to  buy,  but  no  one  is  obliged  to  sell. 
Commerce  becomes  altogether  a  matter  of  convention.  The 
right  of  each  party  is  only  to  propose  ;  that  of  the  other  is  to 
accept  or  refuse,  and  to  his  result  he  rnay  be  guided  exclu 
sively  by  the  consideration  of  his  own  interest,  without  regard 
to  the  interests,  the  wishes,  or  other  wants,  of  his  neighbor. 

"  This  is  a  churlish  and  unsocial  system  ;  and  I  take  occa 
sion  here  to  say  that  whoever  examines  the  Christian  system 
of  morals  with  a  philosophical  spirit,  setting  aside  all  the 
external  and  historical  evidences  of  its  truth,  will  find  all  its 
precepts  tending  to  exalt  the  nature  of  the  animal  man  ;  all  its 
purpose  to  be  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  towards  men.  Ask 
the  atheist,  the  deist,  the  Chinese,  and  they  will  tell  you  that 
the  foundation  of  their  system  of  morals  is  selfish  enjoyment. 
Ask  the  philosophers  of  the  Grecian  schools,  —  Epicurus, 
Socrates,  Zeno,  Plato,  Lucretius,  Cicero,  Seneca,  —  and  you 
will  find  them  discoursing  upon  the  Supreme  Good.  They 
will  tell  you  it  is  pleasure,  ease,  temperance,  prudence,  forti 
tude,  justice  :  not  one  of  them  will  whisper  the  name  of  love, 
unless  in  its  gross  and  physical  sense,  as  an  instrument  of 
pleasure  ;  not  one  of  them  will  tell  you  that  the  source  of  all 
moral  relation  between  you  and  the  rest  of  mankind  is  to  love 
your  neighbor  as  yourself — to  do  unto  him  as  you  would  that 
he  should  do  unto  you. 

"  The  Chinese  recognize  no  such  law.  Their  internal  gov 
ernment  is  a  hereditary  patriarchical  despotism,  arid  their 
own  exclusive  interest  is  the  measure  of  all  their  relations 
with  the  rest  of  mankind.  Their  own  government  is  founded 
upon  the  principle  that  as  a  nation  they  are  superior  to  the 
rest  of  mankind.  They  believe  themselves  and  their  country 
especially  privileged  over  all  others  ;  that  their  dominion  is 
the  celestial  empire,  aud  their  territory  the  flowery  land. 

"  The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Chinese  empire  is  anti- 
commercial.  It  is  founded  entirely  upon  the  second  and  third 
of  Vattel's  general  principles,  to  the  total  exclusion  of  the  first. 
It  admits  no  obligation  to  hold  commercial  intercourse  with 


340     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

others.  It  utterly  denies  the  equality  of  other  nations  with 
itself,  and  even  their  independence.  It  holds  itself  to  be  the 
centre  of  the  terraqueous  globe, —  equal  to  the  heavenly  host,. 
—  and  all  other  nations  with  whom  it  has  any  relations,  polit 
ical  or  commercial,  as  outside  tributary  barbarians,  reverently 
submissive  to  the  will  of  its  despotic  chief.  It  is  upon  this  prin 
ciple,  openly  avowed  and  inflexibly  maintained,  that  the  princi 
pal  maritime  nations  of  Europe  for  several  centuries,  and  the 
United  States  of  America  from  the  time  of  their  acknowledged 
independence,  have  been  content  to  hold  commercial  inter 
course  with  the  empire  of  China. 

"  It  is  time  that  this  enormous  outrage  upon  the  rights  of 
human  nature,  and  upon  the  first  principle  of  the  rights  of 
nations,  should  cease.  These  principles  of  the  Chinese  empire, 
too  long  connived  at  and  truckled  to  by  the  mightiest  Christian 
nations  of  the  civilized  world,  have  at  length  been  brought 
into  conflict  with  the  principles  and  the  power  of  the  British 
empire;  and  I  cannot  forbear  to  express  the  hope  that  Britain, 
after  taking  the  lead  in  the  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade 
and  of  slavery,  and  of  the  still  more  degrading  tribute  to 
the  Barbary  African  Mahometans,  will  extend  her  liberating 
arm  to  the  furthest  bound  of  Asia,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
present  contest  insist  upon  concluding  the  peace  upon  terms 
of  perfect  equality  with  the  Chinese  empire,  and  that  the 
future  commerce  shall  be  carried  on  upon  terms  of  equality 
and  reciprocity  between  the  two  communities  parties  to  the 
trade,  for  the  benefit  of  both  ;  each  retaining  the  right  of 
prohibition  and  of  regulation,  to  interdict  any  article  or  branch 
of  trade  injurious  to  itself,  as  for  example  the  article  of  opium, 
and  to  secure  itself  against  the  practices  of  fraudulent  traders 
and  smugglers.  This  is  the  truth,  and  I  apprehend  the  only 
question  at  issue  between  the  governments  and  nations  of 
Great  Britain  and  China.  It  is  a  general,  but  I  believe  alto 
gether  a  mistaken  opinion,  that  the  quarrel  is  merely  for  cer 
tain  chests  of  opium,  imported  by  British  merchants  into 
China,  and  seized  by  the  Chinese  government  for  having  been 
imported  contrary  to  law.  This  is  a  mere  incident  to  the  dis 
pute,  but  no  more  the  cause  of  war  than  the  throwing  over- 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  341 

board  of  the  tea  in  Boston  harbor  was  the  cause  of  the  North 
American  Revolution. 

"  The  cause  of  the  war  is  the  pretension  on  the  part  of 
the  Chinese  that  in  all  their  intercourse  with  other  nations, 
political  or  commercial,  their  superiority  must  be  implicitly 
acknowledged,  and  manifested  in  humiliating  forms.  It  is  not 
creditable  to  the  great,  powerful,  and  enlightened  nations  of 
Europe,  that  for  several  centuries  they  have,  for  the  sake  of  a 
profitable  trade,  submitted  to  these  insolent  and  insulting  pre 
tensions,  equally  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of  the  law  of 
nature  and  of  revealed  religion  —  the  natural  equality  of 
mankind  — 

"  'Auri  sacra  fames,  quid  non  morlalia  pectora  cogis  ? ' 
"  This  submission  to  insult  is  the  more  extraordinary  for 
being  practised  by  Christian  nations,  which,  in  their  inter 
course  with  one  another,  push  the  principle  of  equality  and 
reciprocity  to  the  minutest  punctilios  of  form." 

This  lecture  concludes  with  a  sketch  of  the  treat 
ment  of  Lord  Macartney  by  the  Chinese  emperor,  in 
1792,  when  sent  to  that  court  as  ambassador  from 
Great  Britain,  illustrating  and  supporting  its  general 
argument.  The  remarks  of  Mr.  Adams  upon  the 
'distinction  with  a  very  small  difference  between  "the 
bended  knee"  and  "entire  prostration,"  as  a  token 
of  homage,  —  admitted  as  to  the  first,  denied  as  to  the 
last,  by  the  British  ambassador,  —  are  characteristic. 

"  The  narrative  of  Sir  George  Staunton  distinctly  and  posi 
tively  affirms  that  Lord  Macartney  was  admitted  to  the  pres 
ence  of  the  Emperor  Kienlung,  and  presented  to  him  his  cre 
dentials,  without  performing  the  prostration  of  the  Kotow  — 
the  Chinese  act  of  homage  from  the  vassal  to  the  sovereign 
lord.  Ceremonies  between  superiors  and  inferiors  are  the  per 
sonification  of  principles.  Nearly  twenty-five  years  after  the 
:epulse  of  Lord  Macartney,  in  1816,  another  splendid  embassy 


342  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY     ADAMS. 

was  despatched  by  the  British  government,  in  the  person  of 
Lord  Araherst,  who  was  much  more  rudely  dismissed,  without 
even  being  admitted  to  the  presence  of  the  emperor,  or  pass 
ing  a  single  hour  at  Pekin.  A  Dutch  embassay,  instituted 
shortly  after  the  failure  of  that  of  Lord  Macartney,  fared 
no  better,  although  the  ambassador  submitted  with  a  good 
gr<tce  to  the  prostration  of  the  Kotow.  A  philosophical 
republican  may  smile  at  the  distinction  by  which  a  British 
nobleman  saw  no  objection  to  delivering  his  credentials  on  the 
bended  knee,  but  could  not  bring  his  stomach  to  the  attitude 
of  entire  prostration.  In  the  discussion  which  arose  between 
Lord  Amherst  and  the  celestials  on  this  question,  the  Chinese, 
to  a  man,  insisted  inflexibly  that  Lord  Macartney  had  per 
formed  the  Kotow  ;  arid  Kiaking,  the  successor  of  Kierilung, 
who  had  been  present  at  the  reception  of  Lord  Macartney, 
personally  pledged  himself  that  he  had  seen  his  lordship  in 
that  attitude.  Against  the  testimony  to  the  fact  of  the  impe 
rial  witness  in  person,  it  may  well  be  conjectured  how  impos 
sible  it  was  for  the  British  noble  to  maintain  his  position, 
which  was,  after  all,  of  small  moment.  The  bended  knee,  no 
less  than  the  full  prostration  to  the  ground,  is  a  symbol  of 
homage  from  an  inferior  to  a  superior,  and  if  not  equally 
humiliating  to  the  performer,  it  is  only  because  he  has  been 
made  familiar  by  practice  with  one,  and  not  with  the  other. 
In  Europe,  the  bended  knee  is  exclusively  appropriated  to  the 
relations  of  sovereign  and  subject ;  and  no  representative  of 
any  sovereign  in  Christendom  ever  bends  his  knee  in  present 
ing  his  credentials  to  another.  But  the  personal  prostration 
of  the  ambassador  before  the  emperor  was,  in  the  Chinese 
principle  of  exaction,  symbolical  not  only  of  the  acknowledg 
ment  of  subjection,  but  of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  empire 
prohibiting  all  official  intercourse  upon  a  footing  of  equality 
between  the  government  of  China  and  the  government  of  any 
other  nation.  All  are  included  under  the  general  denomina 
tion  of  outside  barbarians  ;  and  the  commercial  intercourse 
with  the  maritime  or  navigating  nations  is  maintained  through 
the  exclusive  monopoly  of  the  Hong  merchants." 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  343 

At  the  opening  of  the  session  of  Congress,  on  the 
3d  of  December,  1841,  Mr.  Adams  thus  wrote  con 
cerning  his  own  course  and  the  country's  prospects  : 

•'*  Between  the  obligation  to  discharge  my  duty  to  the 
country  and  the  obvious  impossibility  of  accomplishing  any 
thing  for  the  improvement  of  its  condition  by  legislation,  my 
deliberate  judgment  warns  me  to  a  systematic  adherence  to 
inaction  upon  all  the  controverted  topics  which  cannot  fail  to 
be  brought  into  debate.  Upon  the  rule-question  (that  is, 
refusing  to  receive  or  refer  petitions  on  the  subject  of  slavery) 
I  cannot  be  silent,  but  shall  be  left  alone,  as  heretofore.  I 
await  the  opening  of  the  session  with  great  anxiety ;  more  from 
an  apprehension  of  my  own  imprudence  than  from  a  belief  that 
the  fortunes-rrf  the  country  will  be  much  affected,  for  good  or 
evil,  by  anything  that  will  be  done.  There  is  neither  spotless 
integrity  nor  consummate  ability  at  the  helm  of  the  ship,  and 
she  will  be  more  than  ever  the  sport  of  winds  and  waves, 
drifting  between  breakers  and  quicksands.  May  the  wise  and 
good  Disposer  send  her  home  in  safety  !  " 

On  the  24th  of  January,  1842,  Mr.  Adams  pre 
sented  the  petition  of  forty-five  citizens  of  Haverhill, 
Massachusetts,  praying  that  Congress  would  immedi 
ately  take  measures  peaceably  to  dissolve  the  Union  of 
these  States.  1st.  Because  no  Union  can  be  agreeable 
which  does  not  present  prospects  of  reciprocal  bene 
fits.  2d.  Because  a  vast  proportion  of  the  resources 
of  one  section  of  the  Union  is  annually  drained  to 
sustain  the  views  and  course  of  another  section,  with 
out  any  adequate  return.  3d.  Because,  judging  from 
the  history  of  past  nations,  that  Union,  if  persisted 
in,  in  the  present  course  of  things,  will  certainly  over 
whelm  the  whole  nation  in  utter  destruction  Mr 


344  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Adams  moved  that  the  petition  be  referred  to  a  select 
committee,  with  instructions  to  report  an  answer 
showing  the  reasons  why  the  prayer  of  it  ought  not 
to  be  granted. 

The  excitement  the  presentation  of  this  petition 
produced  was  immediate  and  intense.  Mr.  Hopkins, 
of  Virginia,  moved  to  burn  it  in  presence  of  the  house. 
Mr.  Wise,  of  the  same  state,  asked  the  speaker  if  it 
was  in  order  to  move  to  censure  any  member  for  pre 
senting  such  a  petition.  Mr.  Gilmer,  also  of  Vir 
ginia,  moved  a  resolution,  that  Mr.  Adams,  for  pre 
senting  such  a  petition,  had  justly  incurred  the  censure 
of  the  house.  Mr.  Adams  said  that  he  hoped  the 
resolution  would  be  received  and  discussed.  A  desul 
tory  debate  ensued,  and  was  continued  until  the  house 
adjourned.  A  caucus  was  immediately  held  by  the 
opponents  of  Mr.  Adams  among  .the  representatives 
from  the  South  and  West,  to  take  measures  to  effect 
his  expulsion.  It  was  feared  that  the  two  thirds  vote 
requisite  to  expel  a  member  could  not  be  obtained. 
Three  resolutions  were  therefore  prepared,  the  adop 
tion  of  which  it  was  deemed  would  in  popular  effect  be 
equivalent  to  an  expulsion.  Thomas  F.  Marshall,  of 
Kentucky,  consented  to  present  them  the  next  day. 
The  consideration  of  these  resolutions,  which  continued 
until  the  5th  of  February,  produced  a  series  of  as  vio 
lent  and  personal  debates  as  perhaps  the  halls  of  Con 
gress  ever  witnessed.  They  were  in  these  words  : 

"  WHEREAS,  The  federal  constitution  is  a  permanent  form  of 
government,  and  of  perpetual  obligation,  until  altered  or  mod 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  345 

ified  in  the  mode  pointed  out  in  that  instrument ;  and  the 
members  of  this  House,  deriving  their  political  character  and 
powers  from  the  same,  are  sworn  to  support  it ;  and  the  dis 
solution  of  the  Union  necessarily  implies  the  destruction  of 
that  instrument,  the  overthrow  of  the  American  republic,  and 
the  extinction  of  our  national  existence  :  a  proposition,  there 
fore,  to  the  representatives  of  the  people,  to  dissolve  the 
organic  laws  framed  by  their  constituents,  and  to  support 
which  they  are  commanded  by  those  constituents  to  be  sworn 
before  they  can  enter  into  the  execution  of  the  political 
powers  created  by  it  and  intrusted  to  them,  is  a  high  breach 
of  privilege,  a  contempt  offered  to  this  House,  a  direct  propo 
sition  to  the  legislature  and  each  member  of  it  to  commit  per 
jury,  and  involving  necessarily  in  its  execution  and  its  con 
sequences  the  destruction  of  our  country,  and  the  crime  of 
high  treason. 

"  Resolved,  therefore,  That  the  Honorable  John  Quincy 
Adams,  member  from  Massachusetts,  in  presenting  for  the 
consideration  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  a  petition  praying  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  has 
offered  the  deepest  indignity  to  the  House  of  which  he  is  a 
member,  an  insult  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  of  which 
that  House  is  the  legislative  organ ;  and  will,  if  this  outrage  be 
permitted  to  pass  unrebuked  and  unpunished,  have  disgraced 
his  country,  through  their  representatives,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  world. 

"  Resolved,  further,  That  the  aforesaid  John  Quincy  Adams, 
for  this  insult,  the  first  of  the  kind  ever  offered  to  the  govern 
ment,  and  for  the  wound  which  he  has  permitted  to  be  aimed, 
through  his  instrumentality,  at  the  constitution  and  existence 
of  his  country,  the  peace,  the  security,  and  liberty  of  the 
people  of  these  States,  might  well  be  held  to  merit  expulsion 
from  the  national  councils  ;  and  the  House  deem  it  an  act  of 
grace  and  mercy  when  they  only  inflict  upon  him  their  sever 
est  censure  for  conduct  so  utterly  unworthy  of  his  past  rela 
tions  to  the  state,  and  his  present  position.  This  they  hereby 
do,  for  the  maintenance  of  their  own  purity  and  dignity.  For 


346     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

the  rest,  they  turn  him  over  to  "his  own  conscience,  and  the 
indignation  of  all  true  American  citizens." 

The  scene  which  occurred,  on  their  presentation,  is 
thus  graphically  described  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
day : 

"  On  the  25th  of  January,  the  whole  body  of  Southerners 
came  into  the  House,  apparently  resolved  to  crush  Mr.  Adams 
and  his  cause  forever.  They  gathered  in  groups,  conversed 
in  deep  whispers,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  their  conduct  at 
twelve  o'clock  indicated  a  conspiracy  portending  a  revolution. 
Thomas  F.  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  rose,  and,  having  asked  and 
received  of  Mr.  Gilmer  leave  to  offer  a  substitute  for  his  reso- 
tion  of  censure  which  was  pending  at  the  adjournment,  pre 
sented  the  three  prepared  resolutions.  He  assumed  a  manner 
and  tone  as  if  he  felt  the  historical  importance  of  his  position  ; 
spoke  with  great  coolness  and  solemnity,  —  a  style  wholly 
unusual  with  him  ;  assumed  a  solemn,  magisterial  air,  and 
judicial  elevation,  as  if  he  thought,  in  the  insolence  of  his  con 
ceit,  that  he  was  about  to  pour  down  the  thunder  of  condem 
nation  on  the  venerable  object  of  his  attack,  as  a  judge  pro 
nouncing  sentence  on  a  convicted  culprit,  in  the  sight  of 
approving  men  and  angels.  Warming  somewhat  with  the 
silent,  imposing  attention  of  the  vast  audience  before  whom 
he  spoke,  he  expanded  into  an  inflated  exhibition  of  his  own 
past  relations  to  the  object  of  his  attack,  and  thus  represented 
himself  eminently  qualified  to  act  the  part  he  had  assumed  of 
prosecutor,  judge,  and  executioner.  When  he  finished,  the 
speaker  announced  to  Mr.  Adams  that  his  position  entitled 
him  to  the  floor,  bringing  up  to  the  imagination  a  parallel 
scene  :  '  Then  Agrippa  said  unto  Paul,  Thou  art  permitted 
to  speak  for  thyself.' 

"  Up  rose,  then,  that  bald,  gray  old  man,  his  hands  trem 
bling  with  constitutional  infirmity  and  age,  upon  whose  con 
secrated  head  the  vials  of  tyrannic  wrath  had  been  outpoured. 
Among  the  crowd  of  slaveholders  who  filled  the  galleries  he 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  347 

could  seek  no  friends,  and  but  a  few  among  those  immediately 
around  him.  Unexcited,  he  raised  his  voice,  high-keyed,  as 
was  usual  with  him,  but  clear,  untrenmlous,  and  firm.  In 
a  moment  his  infirmities  disappeared,  although  his  shaking 
hand  could  not  but  be  noticed  :  trembling  not  with  fear,  but 
with  age.  At  first  there  was  nothing  of  indignation  in  his 
tone,  manner,  or  words.  Surprise  and  cold  contempt  were 
all.  But  anon  a  flash  of  withering  scorn  struck  the  unhappy 
Marshall.  A  single  breath  blew  all  his  mock-judicial  array 
into  air  and  smoke.  In  a  tone  of  insulted  majesty  and 
reinvigorated  spirit,  Mr.  Adams  then  said,  in  reply  to  the 
audacious,  atrocious  charge  of  'high  treason  :  '  '  I  call  for  the 
reading  of  the  first  paragraph  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence.  Read  it !  read  it !  and  see  what  that  says  of  the  right 
of  a  people  to  reform,  to  change,  and  to  dissolve  their  gov 
ernment.7 

"  The  look,  the  tone,  the  gesture,  of  the  insulted  patriot,  at 
that  instant  were  most  imposing.  The  voice  was  that  of 
sovereign  command.  The  burthen  of  seventy-five  winters 
rolled  off,  and  he  rose  above  the  puny  things  around  him, 
who  thought  themselves  his  equals,  from  being  his  asso 
ciates. 

"  When  the  passage  of  the  Declaration  was  read  that 
solemnly  proclaims  the  right  of  reform,  revolution,  and  re 
sistance  to  oppression,  the  old  man  thundered  out,  '  Read 
that  again!'  and  he  looked  proudly  round  on  the  listening 
audience,  as  he  heard  his  triumphant  vindication  sounded 
forth  in  the  glorious  sentences  of  the  revolutionary  Magna 
Charta. 

"  The  sympathetic  revulsion  of  feeling  was  intense,  though 
voiceless.  Every  drop  of  free,  honest  blood  in  that  vast 
assemblage  bounded  with  high  impulse,  every  fibre  thrilled 
with  excitement. 

"A  strong  exhibition  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  mostly  in 
cold,  calm,  logical,  measured  sentences,  concluded  the  high 
appeal  of  Mr.  Adams,  from  the  slaveholders  of  the  present 
generation  to  the  Father  of  that  system  of  revolutionary  lib- 


348  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

erty  with  which  he  is  the  coeval  and  the  noblest  champion 
And  then  he  sat  down  vindicated,  victorious." 

Apart  from  the  excited  interest  of  friends,  the 
malign  aspersions  of  political  enemies,  and  his  own 
indignant  response  to  the  hollow  tirade  of  his  assail 
ants,  his  defence,  reduced  to  its  elements,  was  simply 
this  :  that  the  petition  was  sent  to  him  for  presenta 
tion  ;  that  it  was  a  subject  for  which  the  signers  of  it 
had  a  constitutional  right  to  petition,  and  that  in  pre 
senting  it  he  had  proposed  that  the  committee  should 
be  instructed  to  report  reasons  why  it  ought  not  to  be 
granted.  He  said  that  he  should  not  enter  further 
into  his  self-defence  at  that  time,  but  should  wait  to 
see  the  action  of  the  house  upon  those  resolutions. 
But  whenever  the  proper  time  for  his  defence  should 
come,  he  pledged  himself  to  show  that  "a  portion 
of  the  country  from  which  the  assailants  came  was 
endeavoring  to  destroy  the  right  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  of  trial  by  jury,  and  all  the  rights  in  which  the 
liberties  of  the  country  consist ;" — "  that  there  was 
in  that  portion  of  country  a  systematic  attempt  even 
to  carry  it  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  with  a  con 
tinual  system  and  purpose  to  destroy  all  the  principles 
of  civil  liberty  among  the  free  states,  and  by  power  to 
force  the  detested  principles  of  slavery  on  the  free 
States  of  this  Union  ;"  a  pledge  which  in  the  course 
of  his  subsequent  argument  he  fully  redeemed. 

The  last  of  January,  Mr.  Adams  thus  expressed 
himself  concerning  these  proceedings:  "My  occu 
pations  during  the  month  have  been  confined  entirely 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  349 

to  the  business  of  the  house,  and  for  the  last  ten  days 
to  the  defence  of  myself  against  an  extensive  com 
bination  and  conspiracy,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  to 
crush  the  liberties  of  the  free  people  of  this  Union,  by 
disgracing  me  with  the  brand  of  censure,  and  displac 
ing  me  from  the  chair  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs,  for  my  perseverance  in  presenting  abolition 
petitions.  I  am  in  the  midst  of  that  fiery  ordeal,  and 
day  and  night  absorbed  in  the  struggle  against  this 
attempt  at  my  ruin.  God  send  me  a  good  deliver 
ance!" 

Intemperate  debates,  with  violence  undiminished, 
succeeded,  in  which  all  the  topics  of  party  censure, 
from  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  were  collected 
and  heaped  upon  Mr.  Adams  by  Marshall,  Wise, 
Grilmer,  an  of  othefsT" 

On  the  3d  of  February  Mr.  Adams  took  the  floor, 
and  spoke  for  two  hours  in  his  own  defence,  with  an 
eloquence  and  effect  to  which  no  description  can  do 
justice.  He  touched  the  low  underplot  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Affairs  with  pointed  severity  and 
bitter  truth,  and  then  gave  amusing  particulars  of 
missives  he  had  received  from  the  South  threatening 
him  with  assassination.  Among  other  kindly  hints 
sent  through  the  post-office  was  a  colored  lithograph 
portrait  of  himself,  with  the  picturesque  annotation  of 
a  rifle-ball  on  the  forehead,  and  a  promise  that  such 
a  remedy  "  would  stop  his  music."  He  alluded  to 
these  communications  with  perfect  good  nature,  some 
of  them  being  identical  with  words  used  towards  him 
by  Mr.  Gilmer.  A  further  account  of  them  will  be 


350     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

given  from  the  correspondent  of  the  newspapers  of 
the  day.* 

"  Among  the  many  strange  impressions  of  these  singular 
scenes,  nothing  is  more  striking  than  the  total,  disgraceful 
ignorance  which  prevails  as  to  who  John  Quincy  Adams  is. 
That  he  has  been  President  of  the  United  States,  and  had  pre 
viously  borne  high  offices,  seems  occasionally  to  be  vaguely 
remembered  by  a  few  of  the  most  intelligent  of  his  perse 
cutors.  But  of  the  part  which  he  has  borne  for  half  a  century 
in  the  history  of  America  and  of  the  world  they  know  no  more 
than  they  do  of  the  Vedas  and  Puranas. 

"  The  thread  of  this  great  discourse  was  his  present  and 
past  relations  to  Virginia  and  Virginians.  After  gratefully 
acknowledging  his  infinite  obligations  to  the  great  Virginians 
of  the  first  age  of  the  federal  republic,  he  modestly  and  unpre 
tendingly  recounted  the  unsought  exalted  honors  heaped 
upon  him  by  Washington,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and  detailed 
with  touching  simplicity  and  force  some  of  his  leading  actions 
in  the  discharge  of  those  weighty  trusts.  As  he  went  back 
through  the  historic  vista  of  patriotic  achievements,  he 
seemed  to  renew  his  youth  like  the  eagles,  and  rose  into  a 
still  loftier  and  bolder  strain  than  in  the  withering  retort  with 
which  he  struck  down  Wise  and  Marshall.  In  passing  over 
the  preliminaries  of  his  discourse,  he  chanced  to  fix  his  eye  on 
the  latter,  who  was  moving  down  one  of  the  side  aisles. 
Instantly,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  moment,  he  burst  forth 
into  a  beautiful  appeal  to  the  hallowed  memory  of  the  vener 
ated  and  immaculate  Virginian  who  once  bore  the  name  of 
Marshall  through  a  long  career  of  judicial  honor  and  use 
fulness.  The  general  interest  in  this  appeal  to  the  past 
was  impressive.  The  members  of  the  house  drew  together 
around  him  ;  even  his  persecutors  paid  an  involuntary  tribute 
t~>  'the  old  man  eloquent.' 

*  See  the  Boston  Courier  and  New  York  American  of  the  period. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  351 

"  Lord  Morpeth  was  an  attentive  spectator  and  auditor  of 
these  scenes  of  turbulence  ;  and  it  was  interesting  to  see  a 
British  statesman  looking  up  to  learn  from  such  a  source  the 
unwritten  history  of  his  own  country,  as  well  as  of  Europe. 
For  such  it  was,  when  Mr.  Adams  gave  the  history  of  the 
movements  at  the  c6urt  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  and  his 
connection  with  them,  which  resulted  in  the  Russo-British 
alliance  and  in  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  The  early- 
chosen  favorite  of  Washington,  the  trusted  counsellor  of 
Jefferson,  the  much-honored  agent  of  Madison,  the  guide 
and  chief  support  of  Monroe,  the  restorer  of  the  purity 
of  the  Washingtonian  epoch  to  the  Presidential  chair,  and 
for  the  last  ten  years  the  bold  champion  of  universal  liberty, 
stood  there  baited  by  absurd  charges  of  perjury  arid  treason, 
by  insignificant  beings  of  yesterday. 

"  The  monument  of  a  past  age,  a  beacon  to  the  present, 
a  landmark  to  the  future,  he  towered  above  the  little  things 
around  him.  The  beautiful  poetic  appeal  to  Virginia,  with 
which  he  concluded,  caused  a  thrill  of  delighted  admiration 
in  the  whole  assembly.  The  emphasis,  the  pathetic  intona 
tion,  touched  every  heart.  The  triumph  of  Mr.  Adams  was 
complete. J; 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  this  debate,  Mr.  Adams,  in 
opening  his  defence,  said  that  he  had  been  charged 
by  his  assailant  with  consuming  an  , unreasonable 
portion  of  the  time  of  the  house  with  his  own  ...affairs  ; 
but  he  thought  that  six  days  could  not  be  deemed  an 
extravagant  requirement  for  the  defence  of  a  man  sit 
uated  as  he  was,  when  a  great  portion  of  that  period 
had  been  consumed  by  his  assailants,  their  associ 
ates,  and  others.  He  did  not  desire  to  be  responsi 
ble  for  any  unnecessary  consumption  of  the  hours  of 
debate.  He  wished,  indeed,  to  state  the  whole  affair; 
and,  to  accomplish  this,  he  should  require  a  great  deal 


352  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

more  time.  He  had  laid  out  a  great  platform  for  his 
defence,  if  he  was  forced  to  continue  it ;  but  he  was 
willing  to  forego  it  all,  provided  it  could  be  done  with 
out  sacrificing  his  rights,  the  rights  of  his  constituents, 
and  those  of  the  petitioners.  He  then  stated  that  if 
any  gentleman  would  make  a  motion  to  lay  the  whole 
subject  on  the  table,  he  would  forbear  to  proceed  any 
further  with  his  defence.  This  motion  was  imme 
diately  made  by  Mr.  Botts,  of  Virginia,  and  the 
house  decided  in  its  favor,  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred 
and  six  to  ninety -three.  The  petition  from  Haverhill 
was  then  taken  up  and  refused  to  be  received ; 
one  hundred  and  sixty-six  in  the  affirmative  to  forty 
in  the  negative. 

On  the  12th  of  April,  1842,  Mr.  Adams,  as  chair 
man  of  the  committee  on  the  Smithsonian  fund,  made 
a  report  in  the  form  of  a  bill,  the  object  of  which  was 
to  settle  three  fundamental  principles  for  the  adminis 
tration  and  management  of  the  fund  in  all  after  time. 
The  bill  provided,  First,  that  the  principal  fund  should 
be  preserved  and  maintained  unimpaired,  with  an 
income  secured  upon  it  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent,  a 
year,  from  which  all  appropriations  for  the  purposes 
of  the  founder  should  be  made.  Second,  that  the 
portions  of  the  income  already  accrued  and  invested 
in  state  stocks  should  be  constituted  funds,  from 
the  annual  income  of  which  an  astronomical  observer, 
with  suitable  assistants,  should  be  supported.  Third, 
that  in  the  future  management  of  this  fund  no  part 
of  it  should  be  applied  to  any  institution  of  education, 
or  religious  establishment. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  353 

To  the  persevering  spirit  with  which  Mr.  Adams 
on  every  occasion  urged  upon  Congress  and  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  the  observance  of  those  fun 
damental  principles  which  he  had  first  asserted  and 
which  he  afterwards  uninterruptedly  maintained,  not 
withstanding  a  local  and  interested  opposition  to 
them,  may  be  justly  attributed  the  preservation  of 
that  fund,  and  its  subsequent  application  to  the  objects 
of  the  founder's  bequest,  although  in  his  prevailing 
desire  that  an  astronomical  observatory  should  be  one 
of  them,  he  did  not  succeed.  Connected  with  this 
report,  all  the  previous  proceedings  in  relation  to  it 
were  again  published,  for  the  information  of  Congress 
and  the  public. 

On  the  14th  of  the  same  month,  a  bill  making 
appropriations  for  the  civil  and  diplomatic  expenses 
of  government  being  under  consideration,  Mr.  Linn, 
of  New  York,  moved  to  strike  out  so  much  of  it  as 
related  to  a  minister  to  Mexico,  expressing  his  belief 
that  the  object  of  this  mission  was  to  bring  about 
the  annexation  of  Texas.  A  debate  ensued,  which 
was  desultory  and  declamatory  on  the  part  of  those 
advocating  the  appropriation.  Mr.  Wise,  of  Virginia, 
said  that  the  tyrant  of  Mexico  was  now  at  war  with 
Texas  ;  that  he  threatened  to  invade  her  territory, 
and  never  stop  until  he  had  driven  slavery  beyond  the 
Sabine  ;  and  that  the  gentlemen  opposed  to  the  mis 
sion  would  let  him  loose  his  servile  horde,  and  yet  send 
no  minister  to  remonstrate  or  to  threaten.  Our  citi 
zens  had  claims  on  that  government  to  the  amount  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  millions.  Ten  or  a  dozen  of  our  citi- 

23 


354     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

zeng  —  of  our  own  native  citizens  —  were  in  degrad 
ing  bondage  in  the  mines  of  Mexico,  or  sweeping  its 
streets ;  and  yet  a  minister  to  Mexico  was  opposed 
because  the  President  and  a  party  in  this  country 
wished  to  annex  Texas  to  the  Union.  It  was  not  only 
the  duty  of  this  government  to  demand  the  liquidation 
of  our  claims  and  the  liberation  of  our  citizens,  but 
to  go  further,  and  demand  the  non-invasion  of  Texas. 
We  should  at  once  say  to  Mexico,  "If  you  strike 
Texas,  you  strike  us."  And  if  England,  standing 
by,  should  dare  to  intermeddle  and  ask,  "Do  you 
take  part  with  Texas?"  his  prompt  answer  would  be, 
"  Yes,  and  against  you." 

Mr.  Ingersoll,  of  Pennsylvania,  followed  on  the 
same  side,  maintaining  that  Texas  ought  to  be 
annexed  to  the  Union,  even  at  the  risk  of  a  war  with 
Great  Britain.  He  said  that  he  was  a  man  of  peace, 
and  was  not  insensible  to  the  evils  of  war,  but  he 
contended  that  they  were  greatly  exaggerated.  He 
wished  the  British  minister  to  understand  that  war 
would  not  do  us  so  much  harm  as  it  would  his  own 
country.  In  the  first  place,  if  we  chose  to  apply  the 
principles  of  war,  it  paid  all  the  state  debts  at  once, 
—  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  At  all  events,  it 
suspended  the  interest  during  the  war.  We  had  a 
sufficient  population,  the  capacity  of  drilling  that 
population,  and  all  the  materials  for  war.  There 
were  two  vessels  now  within  the  sound  of  his  voice 
to  which  there  was  nothing  in  a  British  or  French 
navy  to  be  compared.  Our  lakes  were  covered  with 
transporting  steamboats,  which  could  easily  be  made 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  355 

effective  for  harbor  defence.  We  lived  in  a  republican 
country,  in  an  armed  nation ;  and  he  would  rather 
take  this  nation  as  it  was  than  the  most  completely 
armed  nation  in  the  world.  Having  proceeded  at 
great  length  in  this  strain,  stating  various  particulars, 
some  of  which  may  be  gathered  from  Mr.  Adams' 
reply,  he  concluded  by  challenging  opposition  to  the 
opinion  that  there  was  no  right  of  search  in  time  of 
war,  and  that  such  a  claim  was  a  monstrosity.  The 
greatest  question  in  the  world,  which  now  agitated 
nearly  all  Christendom,  was  this  mixed  question  of 
the  slave-trade  and  the  right  of  visit  and  search. 
To  statements  and  arguments  of  this  force  and  nature 
Mr.  Adams  made  a  scrutinizing  and  unanswerable 
reply,  of  which  the  following  extract  will  sufficiently 
exhibit  the  power  and  quality. 

"The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  began  by  saying  that 
he  was  for  peace  —  for  universal  peace.  Then  followed  a 
most  learned  dissertation  to  prove  that  it  was  an  entire  mis 
take  to  suppose  that  we  are  not  now  prepared  for  war  ;  and 
to  demonstrate  that  a  nation  which  goes  into  a  war  unpre 
pared  will  infallibly  conquer  ;  that  it  must  be  so  ;  that  every 
unarmed  and  unprepared  nation  always  had  conquered  its 
armed  opposers.  No  ;  we  are  not  unprepared  for  war,  —  not 
at  all,  —  because  we  have  in  sight  of  the  windows  of  this  capi- 
tol  two  armed  steamers  ;  one  of  them,  as  I  am  informed,  nearly 
disabled,  so  that  she  will  need,  in  a  great  measure,  to  be 
rebuilt,  leaving  for  our  use,  in  case  of  immediate  hostilities,  one 
entire  steamer,  and  with  that  we  are  to  burn  London  ;  and 
though  the  gentleman  readily  admitted  that  it  was  possible, 
nay,  very  probable,  that  New  York  would  be  burnt  too,  yet, 
as  London  was  four  or  five  times  as  large,  we  should  have  a 
great  balance  of  burning  on  our  side.  Yes  ;  we  were  to  con- 


356     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

quer  Great  Britain  and  burn  London,  and  we  were  told  that 
it  would  be  a  very  cheap  price  for  all  this  to  have  the  city 
of  New  York  burnt  in  turn,  or  burnt  first.  And  this  was  an 
argument  for  peace  I 

"  What  else  did  the  gentlemen  say  ?  What  else  did  he 
not  say  ?  He  made  a  great  argument  and  a  valorous  display 
of  zeal  in  relation  to  the  right  of  search.  0,  that  —  that  was 
a  point  never  to  be  conceded  —  no,  never.  He  maintained 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  right  of  search  —  no  such 
right  in  time  of  war,  none  in  time  of  peace.  Well,  I  do 
agree  with  the  gentleman  partially  on  that  one  point,  so  far 
as  to  believe  that  there  is  no  need  of  our  coming  to  an 
issue  with  Great  Britain  there,  and  we  have  not  as  yet. 
After  reading,  as  I  have  done,  and  carefully  examining  the 
papers  put  forth  on  both  sides,  I  asked  myself,  What  is  the 
question  between  us  ?  And  I  have  heard  men  of  the  first 
intelligence  say  that  they  found  themselves  in  the  very  same 
situation.  The  gentleman  has  made  a  total  misrepresentation 
of  the  demand  of  Great  Britain  in  the  matter.  She  has  never 
claimed  the  right  to  search  American  vessels  —  no  such  thing. 
On  the  contrary,  she  has  explicitly  disclaimed  any  such  pre 
tension,  and  that  to  the  whole  extent  we  can  possibly 
demand.  What  is  it  we  do  demand  ?  Not  that  Great  Britain 
should  disclaim  the  right  to  search  American  vessels,  but  we 
deny  her  the  right  to  board  pirates  who  hoist  the  American 
flag.  Yes  ;  and  to  search  British  vessels,  too,  that  have  been 
declared  to  be  pirates  by  the  laws  of  nations,  pirates  by  the 
laws  of  Great  Britain,  pirates  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States.  That  is  the  demand  of  our  late  minister  to  London, 
whose  letters  are  so  much  admired  by  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania.  Now,  it  happens  that  behind  all  this  exceeding 
great  zeal  against  the  right  of  search  is  a  question  which  the 
gentleman  took  care  not  to  bring  into  view,  and  that  is  the 
support  and  perpetuation  of  the  African  slave-trade.  That  is 
the  real  question  between  the  ministers  of  America  and  Great 
Britain  :  whether  slave-traders,  pirates,  by  merely  hoisting  the 
American  flag,  shall  be  saved  from  capture. 

"  I  say  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  exemption  from  the 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS  357 

right  of  search  by  the  laws  of  nations,  and  I  challenge  and 
defy  the  gentleman  to  produce  the  proof.  The  right  of  search 
in  time  of  war  we  have  never  pretended  to  deny.  Nay,  we 
ourselves  exercised  that  right  during  the  last  war.  And 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  their  decisions 
of  prize  cases  brought  before  them,  sustained  us  in  doing  so, 
and  said  it  was  lawful  according  to  the  laws  of  nations.  And, 
indeed,  we  should  have  had  a  very  poor  chance  in  a  war  with 
Great  Britain,  without  it. 

"  But  what  is  the  right  of  search  in  time  of  peace  ?  And 
how  has  Congress  felt,  and  how  has  the  American  govern 
ment  acted,  on  this  point  ?  I  have  some  knowledge  on  this 
subject.  In  the  year  181Y,  when  I  was  about  to  return  from 
England  to  the  United  States,  Mr.  Wilberforce,  then  a  mem 
ber  of  the  British  Parliament,  very  celebrated  for  his  long  and 
persevering  exertions  to  suppress  the  African  slave-trade, 
wrote  me  a  note  requesting  an  interview.  I  acceded 
promptly  to  his  request ;  and  in  conversation  he  stated  to  me 
that  the  British  government  had  found  that  without  a  mutual 
right  of  search  between  this  country  and  that,  upon  the  coast 
of  Africa,  it  would  be  impossible  to  carry  through  the  sys 
tem  she  had  formed  in  connection  with  the  United  States  for 
the  suppression  of  that  infamous  traffic.  I  had  then  just 
signed  with  my  own  hand  a  treaty  declaring  '  the  traffic  in 
slaves  (not  the  African  slave-trade,  but  THE  TRAFFIC  IN  SLAVES) 
unjust  and  inhuman/  and  in  which  both  nations  engaged  to 
do  all  in  their  power  to  suppress  it.  Mr.  Wilberforce 
inquired  of  me  whether  I  thought  that  a  proposal  for  a  mutual, 
restricted,  qualified  right  of  search  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
American  government.  I  had  at  that  time  a  feeling  to  the 
full  as  strong  against  the  right  of  search,  as  it  had  then  been 
exercised  by  British  cruisers,  as  ever  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Ingersoll)  had,  in  all  his  life.  I  had  been 
myself  somewhat  involved  in  the  question  as  a  public  man. 
It  constituted  one  of  the  grounds  of  my  unfortunate  difference 
from  those  with  whom  I  had  long  been  politically  associated ; 
and  it  was  for  the  exertions  I  had  made  against  the  admission 
:>f  tliat  right  that  I  forfeited  my  place  in  the  other  end  of  the 


358     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

capitol,  and,  which  was  infinitely  more  painful  to  me,  for  this 
I  had  differed  with  men  long  dear  to  me,  and  to  whom  I  had 
also  been  dear,  insomuch  that  for  a  time  it  interrupted  all 
friendly  relations  between  us. 

"  The  first  thing  I  said,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Wilberforce,  was  : 
'  No  ;  you  may  as  well  save  yourselves  the  trouble  of  making 
any  proposals  on  that  subject ;  my  countrymen,  I  am  very  sure, 
will  never  assent  to  any  such  arrangement.'  He  then  entered 
into  an  argument,  the  full  force  of  which  I  felt,  when  I  said 
to  him,  '  You  may,  if  you  think  proper,  make  the  proposal ; 
but  I  think  some  other  mode  of  getting  over  the  difficulty 
must  be  resorted  to  ;  for  the  prejudices  of  my  country  are  so 
immovably  strong  on  that  point,  that  I  do  not  believe  they 
will  ever  assent.' 

"  I  returned  home,  and,  under  the  administration  of  Mr. 
Monroe,  I  filled  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  ;  and  in  that 
capacity  I  was  the  medium  through  which  the  proposal  of  the 
British  government  was  afterwards  made  to  the  United  States 
to  arrange  a  special  right  of  search  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade.  This  proposition  I  resisted  arid  opposed  in  the 
cabinet  with  all  my  power.  And  I  will  say  that,  although  I 
was  not  myself  a  slaveholder,  I  had  to  resist  all  the  slave- 
holding  members  of  the  cabinet,  and  the  President  also.  Mr. 
Monroe  himself  was  always  strongly  inclined  in  favor  of  the 
proposition,  and  I  maintained  the  opposite  ground  against 
him  and  the  whole  body  of  his  official  advisers  as  long  as  I 
could. 

"  At  that  time  there  was  in  Congress,  and  especially  in  the 
House,  a  spirit  of  concession,  which  I  could  not  resist.  From 
the  year  1818  to  the  year  1823,  not  a  session  passed  without 
some  movement  on  this  point,  and  some  proposition  made  to 
request  the  President  to  negotiate  for  the  mutual  concession 
of  this  right  of  search.  I  resisted  it  to  the  utmost ;  and  so 
earnest  did  the  matterr  become,  that,  on  one  occasion,  at  an 
evening  party  in  the  President's  house,  in  a  conversation 
between  myself  and  a  distinguished  gentleman  of  Virginia,  — 
a  principal  leader  of  this  movement,  now  living,  but  not  now 
a  member  of  this  house,  —  words  became  so  warm  that  what 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS.  359 

I  said  was  afterwards  alluded  to  by  another  gentleman  of  Vir 
ginia,  in  an  address  to  his  constituents,  against  my  election  as 
President  of  the  United  States.  It  was  made  an  objection 
against  me  that  I  was  an  enemy  to  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade.  That  address  and  my  reply  to  it  are  in  existence, 
and  the  latter  in  the  hands  of  a  gentleman  of  Virginia  now  in 
this  house,  and  who  can  correct  me  if  I  do  not  state  the  mat 
ter  correctly.  The  address  was  written,  and  would  have  been 
published,  with  an  allusion  to  what  I  had  said  in  the  conver 
sation  (which  the  writer  heard,  although  it  was  not  addressed 
to  him),  but  the  gentleman  with  whom  I  was  conversing  went 
to  him,  and  told  him  that  if  he  did  refer  in  print  to  that  pri 
vate  conversation,  he  would  never  speak  to  him  ;  and  so  it 
was  suppressed.  I  state  these  facts,  sir,  that  I  may  set  my 
self  right  on  this  question  of  the  right  of  search. 

"At  that  time  a  gentleman,  who  was  the  leader  of  one  of 
the  parties  in  this  house,  had  endeavored  from  year  to  year  to 
prevail  with  the  house  to  require  of  the  President  a  conces 
sion  of  the  right  asked.  I  name  him  to  honor  him  ;  for  he 
was  one  of  the  most  talented,  laborious,  eloquent,  and  useful 
men  upon  this  floor.  I  allude  to  Charles  Fenton  Mercer,  of 
Virginia.  Session  after  session,  he  brought  forward  his  reso 
lution  ;  and  he  continued  to  press  it,  until,  finally,  in  1823,  he 
brought  the  house  by  yeas  and  nays  to  vote  their  assent  to  it ; 
and,  strange  to  say,  there  were  but  nine  votes  against  it. 
The  same  thing  took  place  in  the  other  house.  The  joint  res 
olution  went  to  the  President,  and  he  accordingly  entered  into 
the  negotiation.  It  was  utterly  against  my  judgment  and 
wishes ;  but  I  was  obliged  to  submit,  and  I  prepared  the 
requisite  despatches  to  Mr.  Rush,  then  our  minister  at  the 
court  of  London.  When  he  made  his  proposal  to  Mr.  Can 
ning',  Mr.  Canning's  reply  was,  '  Draw  up  your  convention, 
and  I  will  sign  it.'  Mr.  Rush  did  so,  and  Mr.  Canning,  with 
out  the  slightest  alteration  whatever,  —  without  varying  the 
dot  of  an  i,  or  the  crossing  of  a  t,  —  did  affix  to  it  his  signa 
ture  ;  thus  assenting  to  our  own  terms  in  our  own  language. 

"The  convention  came  back  here  for  ratification;  but,  in 
the  mean  time,  another  spirit  came  over  the  feelings  of  this 


SCO     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

nouse,  as  well  as  of  the  Senate.  A  party  had  been  formed 
against  the  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe ;  the  course  of  the 
administration  was  no  longer  favored,  and  the  house  came  out 
in  opposition  to  a  convention  drawn  in  conformity  to  its  own 
previous  views. 

"  But  now,  as  I  do  not  wish  to  intrude  on  the  attention  of 
this  committee  a  single  moment  longer  than  is  necessary,  I 
will  pass  over  the  rest  of  what  I  might  say  on  this  subject, 
and  recur,  in  a  few  observations,  to  the  other  war-trumpet 
which  we  have  heard  within  the  last  two  days. 

"  They  unite  in  one  purpose,  though  they  seem  to  be  pursu 
ing  it  by  different  means.  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr. 
Wise),  confining  his  observations  to  our  relations  with  Mex 
ico,  also  urges  us  to  war  with  the  same  professions  of  a  disposi 
tion  for  peace  as  were  so  often  repeated  by  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  in  regard  to  Great  Britain.  He  does  not  imme 
diately  connect  the  questions  of  war  with  Mexico  and  war 
with  Great  Britain,  but  apparently  knows  and  feels  that  they 
are  in  substance  and  in  fact  but  one  and  the  same  question  ; 
and  that,  so  surely  as  we  rush  into  a  war  with  Mexico,  we 
shall  shortly  find  ourselves  in  a  war  with  England.  The  gen 
tleman  appeared  entirely  conscious  of  that ;  and  I  hope  that 
no  member  of  this  committee  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  have  a  war  with  Mexico  without  at  the 
same  time  going  to  war  with  Great  Britain.  On  that  subject 
I  will  venture  to  say  that  the  minister  from  England  has  no 
instructions.  That  is  not  one  of  the  five  points  on  which  the 
gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  tells  us  our  controversy  with 
England  rests,  and  the  surrendering  of  which  is  to  open  to 
that  minister  so  easy  a  road  t6  an  earldom.  The  war  with 
Mexico  is  to  be  produced  by  different  means,  and  for  different 
purposes.  I  think  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  in  his  speech, 
rested  the  question  of  the  war  with  Mexico  upon  three  grounds : 
1st,  That  our  citizens  had  claims  against  the  Mexican  govern 
ment  to  the  amount  of  ten  or  twelve  millions  ;  2d,  That  some 
ten  or  twelve  of  our  citizens  had  been  treated  with  great  sever 
ity,  and  suffered  disgrace  and  abuse  from  the  Mexican  govern- 
merit,  having  been  made  slaves,  and  compelled  to  work  at 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  361 

cleansing  the  streets  ;  that  these  citizens  were  detained  in 
servitude,  while  one  British  subject  had  been  promptly  released 
on  the  first  demand  of  the  British  minister  there ;  and,  3d, 
That  a  war  with  Mexico  would  accomplish  the  annexation  of 
Texas  to  the  Union.  The  gentleman  was  in  favor  of  war,  not 
merely  for  the  abstract  purpose  of  annexing  Texas  to  the 
Union,  but  he  was  for  war  by  peremptorily  prohibiting  Santa 
Anna  from  invading  Texas. 

"  I  will  take  up.  these  reasons  in  order.  And,  first,  as  to 
going  to  war  for  the  obtaining  of  these  ten  or  twelve  millions 
of  dollars,  being  the  claims  of  our  own  citizens  on  Mexico. 
This  seems  a  very  extraordinary  reason,  when,  according  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  a  state  of 
war  at  once  extinguishes  all  national  debts.  If  we  go  to  war 
with  Mexico,  her  debts  to  our  citizens  will  be  expunged  at 
once,  if  the  doctrine  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  be 
true.  He  did,  to  be  sure,  qualify  the  position  by  saying  that 
war  would  at  least  suspend  the  payment  of  interest.  If  so, 
then  it  would  equally  suspend  interest  in  the  case  of  Mexico. 
The  arguments  of  the  two  war  gentlemen  happen  to  cross 
each  other,  though  they  are  directed  to  the  same  end.  One 
of  them  will  have  us  go  to  war  with  Mexico  to  recover  twelve 
millions  of  dollars  ;  the  other  would  have  us  go  to  war  with 
England  to  wipe  out  a  debt  of  two  hundred  millions.  I  will 
not  compare  the  arguments  of  the  two  gentlemen  together ; 
but  I  will  say,  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania,  that  it  has  quite  too  much  of  repudiation  in  it 
for  my  creed.  I  do  not  think  that  a  war  with  England  would 
extinguish  these  two  hundred  millions,  but  that,  on  the  con 
trary,  Great  Britain  would  be  likely  to  say  to  us,  '  We  will  go 
to  war  to  recover  the  money  you  owe  us.'  That  is  one  of  the 
questions  which  we  must  settle  if  we  go  to  war,  but  which  we 
might  otherwise,  at  least  for  a  time,  stave  off.  But,  if  we  go 
to  war,  what  must  be  the  effect  of  the  peace  that  follows  ? 
We  must  pay  our  two  hundred  millions,  with  the  interest.  As 
to  our  debt  from  Mexico,  I  believe  the  way  to  recover  it  is  not 
to  go  to  war  for  it ;  for  war,  besides  failing  to  recover  the 


362  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

money,  will  occasion  us  the  loss  of  ten  times  the  amount  in 
other  ways. 

"  As  to  war  producing  a  suspension  of  interest  on  a  national 
debt,  let  the  gentleman  look  back  a  little  to  the  wars  of  France. 
In  1793  France  was  at  war  with  almost  all  the  countries  of 
Europe,  and  she  immediately  confiscated  all  her  debts  to  them. 
But  what  happened  thirty  years  after,  when  the  reaction  came  ? 
The  allies  took  Paris,  and,  in  the  settlement  which  then  took 
place,  they  compelled  France  to  pay  all  her  debts,  with  full 
interest  on  the  whole  period  during  which  payment  had  been 
suspended.  That  was  the  consequence  to  France  of  going  to 
war  to  extinguish  debts.  And,  if  we  go  to  war  with  Great 
Britain  to-morrow,  she  will  make  us,  as  one  of  the  conditions 
of  peace,  pay  our  whole  debt  of  two  hundred  millions,  with 
interest.  And  what  shall  we  gain?  Spend  millions  upon 
millions  every  year,  as  long  as  the  war  continues  ;  and,  unless 
it  is  greatly  successful,  have  to  pay  our  debt  at  last,  principal 
and  interest.  This  would  depend  on  the  chances  of  war,  or 
the  issues  of  battle.  And,  as  our  contests  would  be  chiefly 
on  the  ocean,  we  must  first  obtain  a  superiority  on  the  seas 
before  we  can  put  her  down  and  vanquish  her ;  and  this  to 
save  ourselves  from  the  payment  of  two  hundred  millions 
justly  due  from  our  citizens  to  hers  ! 

11  There  is  a  second  reason  given  by  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia  in  favor  of  war.  He  reminds  us,  with  great  warmth, 
that  there  are  some  ten  or  twelve  citizens  of  the  United  States 
now  prisoners  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  dragging  chains 
about  the  streets  of  that  city ;  that  a  British  subject  taken 
with  them  has  been  liberated,  while  they  are  kept  in  bondage. 
Now,  if  I  am  correctly  informed,  one  American  citizen,  a  son 
of  General  Coombs,  has  been  liberated  on  the  application  of  the 
minister  of  the  United  States,  who  was  as  fairly  a  subject  of 
imprisonment  as  the  British  subject  of  whom  the  gentleman 
speaks.  I  certainly  have  no  objections  to  our  minister's  mak 
ing  such  representations  as  he  can  in  favor  of  the  release  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  although  taken  in  actual  war 
against  Mexico,  in  association  with  Texian  forces  ;  but  I 
am  not  prepared  to  go  to  war  to  obtain  their  liberation.  I 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  363 

must  first  be  permitted  to  ask  how  it  is  that  these  men  happen 
to  be  in  the  streets  of  Mexico.  Is  it  not  because  they  formed 
part  of  an  expedition  got  up  in  Texas  against  the  Mexican 
city  of  Santa  Fe  ?  Were  they  not  taken  flagrante  bello,  actually 
engaged  in  a  war  they  had  nothing  to  do  with,  to  which  the 
United  States  were  no  party  ?  In  all  this  great  pity  and  sym 
pathy  for  American  citizens  made  to  travel  hundreds  of  miles 
barefoot  and  in  chains,  the  question  '  How  came  they  there  ?' 
seems  never  to  be  asked.  And  yet,  so  far  as  the  interposition 
of  this  nation  for  their  recovery  is  concerned,  that  is  the  very 
first  question  to  be  asked. 

"  I  come  now  to  the  third  ground  for  war  urged  by  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia,  and  I  hope  I  do  not  misrepresent 
him  when  I  say  that  I  understood  him  to  affirm  that  if  he 
had  the  power  he  would  prohibit  the  invasion  of  Texas  by 
Mexico ;  and  if  Mexico  would  not  submit  to  such  a  require 
ment,  and  should  persist  in  her  invasion,  he  would  go  to  war. 
The  gentleman  stated,  as  a  ground  for  war,  that  Santa  Anna 
had  avowed  his  determination  to  '  drive  slavery  beyond  the 
Sabine.'  That  was  what  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  most 
apprehended — that  slavery  would  be  abolished  in  Texas  ;  that 
we  should  have  neighbors  at  our  doors  not  contaminated  by 
that  accursed  plague-spot.  He  would  have  war  with  Mexico 
sooner  than  slavery  should  be  driven  back  to  the  United 
States,  whence  it  came.  If  that  is  to  be  the  avowed  opinion 
of  this  committee,  in  God's  name  let  my  constituents  know  it ! 
The  sooner  it  is  proclaimed  on  the  house-tops,  the  better — the 
house  is  to  go  to  war  with  Mexico  for  the  purpose  of  annexing 
Texas  to  this  Union  ! " 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


REPORT    ON    PRESIDENT   TYLER  S    APPROVAL,    WITH    OBJECTIONS,    OF    THE 

BILL    FOR    THE    APPORTIONMENT    OF     REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT    ON 

HIS   VETO   OF    THE    BILL    TO    PROVIDE    A    REVENUE    FROM    IMPORTS. 

LECTURE    ON    THE    SOCIAL    COMPACT,    AND    THE    THEORIES    OF    FILMER, 
HOBBES,    SYDNEY,    AND    LOCKE.  —  ADDRESS    TO    HIS    CONSTITUENTS    ON 

THE    POLICY    OF    PRESIDENT    TYLER'S    ADMINISTRATION. ADDRESS    TO 

THE    NORFOLK    COUNTY    TEMPERANCE    SOCIETY. DISCOURSE    ON    THE 

NEW  ENGLAND   CONFEDERACY  OF   1643. LETTER   TO    THE    CITIZENS    OF 

BANGOR    ON    WEST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION. ORATION  ON    LAYING  THE 

CORNER-STONE    OF   THE    CINCINNATI    OBSERVATORY. 


ON  the  23d  of  June,  1842,  President  Tyler  an 
nounced  to  the  House  of  Representatives  that  he  had 
signed  and  approved  an  act  for  the  apportionment  of 
representatives  among  the  several  states,  and  had 
deposited  the  same  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  accompanied  with  his  reasons  for  giving  to  it 
his  sanction  ;  by  which  it  appeared  that,  after  having 
officially  "  approved"  that  act,  he  had  declared,  in 
effect,  that  he  did  not  approve  of  it,  having  doubts 
concerning  both  its  constitutionality  and  expediency, 
and  that  he  had  signed  it  only  in  deference  to  the 
opinions  of  both  houses  of  Congress.  Mr.  Adams, 
from  the  committee  to  whom  these  proceedings  of  the 
President  had  been  referred,  in  a  report  to  the  House 
severely  scrutinizes  the  course  of  the  President  in 

(364) 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  365 

this  respect.  He  declares  that  the  duty  of  the  Pres 
ident,  in  exercising  the  authority  given  him  by  the 
constitution  to  sign  and  approve  acts  of  Congress,  is 
prescribed  in  terms  equally  concise  and  precise  ;  and 
that  it  has  given  him  no  power  to  alter,  amend,  com 
ment  upon,  or  assign  his  reasons  for  the  performance 
of  his  duty.  These  views  he  illustrates  by  a  minute 
examination  of  the  language  of  that  instrument, 
and  shows  that  what  the  President  had  done  was  a 
departure  not  only  from  the  language  but  from  the 
substance  of  the  law  prescribing  to  him  his  duties 
in  that  respect.  Mr.  Adams  then,  in  behalf  of  the 
committee,  after  showing  that  the  proceeding  of  the 
President  in  this  instance  is  without  precedent  or 
example,  and  imminently  dangerous  in  its  tendencies, 
proceeds  to  remark : 

"  The  entry  upon  the  bill  is,  '  Approved  :  John  Tyler  ; "  and 
that  entry  makes  it  the  law  of  the  land ;  and  then,  by  a  pri 
vate  note  deposited  with  the  law  in  the  Department  of  State, 
the  same  hand  which,  under  the  sacred  obligation  of  an  official 
oath,  has  written  the  word  'approved/  and  added  the  sign- 
manual  of  his  name,  feels  it  due  to  himself  to  declare  that  the 
bill  is  not  approved,  and  that  he  doubts  both  its  constitution 
ality  and  its  policy,  and  that  he  signs  it  only  in  deference  to 
the  declared  will  of  both  houses  of  Congress  ;  not  from  assent 
to  their  reasons,  but  in  submission  to  their  will. 

"  And  he  feels  it  due  to  himself  to  say  this,  —  first,  that  his 
motives  for  signing  it  may  be  rightly  understood ;  secondly, 
that  his  opinions  may  not  be  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  or, 
thirdly,  quoted  hereafter  erroneously  as  a  precedent.  The 
motives  of  a  President  of  the  United  States  for  signing  an  act 
of  Congress  can  be  no  other  than  because  he  approves  it ;  and 
because,  in  that  event,  the  constitution  enjoins  it  upon  him  to 


366  MEMOIR    OP    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

sign  it  as  a  duty,  which  he  has  sworn  to  perform,  and  with 
which  he  cannot  dispense. 

"  But  no  ;  in  the  present  case  the  President  feels  it  due  to 
himself  to  say  that  his  motives  for  signing  the  bill  were  not 
because  he  approved  it,  or  because  it  was  made  by  the  consti 
tution  his  duty  to  sign  it,  but  to  prove  his  submission  to  the 
will  of  Congress.  He  feels  it  due  also  to  himself  to  guard 
against  the  liability  of  his  opinions  to  misconstruction,  or  to 
be  quoted  hereafter  erroneously  as  a  precedent.  His  signa 
ture  to  the  bill,  preceded  by  the  word  '  approved,'  taken  in 
connection  with  the  duties  prescribed  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  by  the  constitution,  certainly  was  liable  to  the 
construction  that  his  opinions  were  favorable  to  the  bill.  They 
were,  indeed,  liable  to  no  other  construction  respectful  to  him, 
or  trustful  to  his  honor  arid  sincerity ;  nor  can  there  be  a 
doubt  that  they  would  have  been  quoted  hereafter  as  a  prece 
dent.  No  man  living  could  have  imagined  that  the  word 
'  approved '  could  be  construed  to  mean  either  doubt  or  obse 
quious  submission  to  the  will  of  others  ;  and  it  is  with  extreme 
regret  that  the  committee  see,  in  the  President's  exposition  of 
his  reasons  for  signing  an  act  of  Congress,  the  open  avowal 
that,  in  his  vocabulary,  used  in  the  performance  of  one  of  the 
most  solemn  and  sacred  of  his  duties,  the  word  '  approved ' 
means  not  approval,  but  doubt ;  not  the  expression  of  his  own 
opinions,  but  mere  obsequiousness  to  the  will  of  Congress." 

The  report  proceeds  to  deny  that  the  example  of  the 
advice  given  by  the  first  Secretary  of  State  to  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States,  which  the  President 
adduces  in  his  support,  and  the  following  that  advice 
by  that  President,  gave  any  "  sanction  to  such  recorded 
duplicity."  It  asserts  that  such  an  example  is  of  dan 
gerous  tendency — an  encroachment  by  the  Executive 
on  legislative  functions ;  that  the  reasons  given  by  Pres 
ident  Tyler  are  a  running  commentary  against  the  law, 
against  its  execution  according  to  the  intention  of  the 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  367 

legislature,  and  forestalling  the  appropriate  action  of 
the  judicial  tribunals  in  expounding  it.  These  and 
consentaneous  views  the  report  largely  illustrates,  and 
concludes  with  a  resolution  declaring  the  proceedings 
of  the  President  in  this  case  to  have  been  unwar 
ranted  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States,  injurious  to  the  public  interest,  and  of  evil 
example  in  future  ;  solemnly  protesting  against  its 
ever  being  repeated,  or  adduced  as  a  precedent  here 
after. 

On  the  9th  of  August,  1842,  President  Tyler 
returned  to  the  House  of  Representatives  the  bill  to 
provide  a  revenue  from  imports,  and  changing  the 
existing  laws  imposing  duties  on  them,  accompanied 
with  his  objections  to  it.  The  house  referred  the  sub 
ject  to  a  select  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Adams  was 
chairman.  On  the  16th  of  August  he  reported  that 
the  message  was  the  last  of  a  series  of  executive 
measures,  the  result  of  which  had  been  to  defeat  and 
nullify  the  whole  action  of  the  legislative  authority  of 
the  Union  upon  the  most  important  interests  of  the 
nation  ;  —  that,  at  the  accession  of  the  late  President 
Harrison,  the  revenue  and  the  credit  of  the  country 
were  so  completely  disordered,  that  a  suffering  people 
had  commanded  a  change  in  the  administration ;  and 
the  elections  throughout  the  Union  had  placed  in  both 
houses  of  Congress  majorities,  the  natural  exponents 
of  the  principles  which  it  was  the  will  of  the  people 
should  be  substituted  instead  of  those  which  had 
brought  the  country  to  a  condition  of  such  wretched 
ness  and  shame  ;  —  that  there  was  a  perfect  harmony 


368     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

between  the  chosen  President  of  the  people  and  this 
majority  ;  but  that,  by  an  inscrutable  decree  of  Prov 
idence,  the  chief  of  the  people's  choice,  in  harmony 
with  whose  principles  the  majorities  of  both  houses 
had  been  constituted,  was  laid  low  in  death.  A  suc 
cessor  to  the  office  had  assumed  the  title,  with  totally 
different  principles,  who,  though  professing  to  har 
monize  with  the  principles  of  his  immediate  predeces 
sor,  and  with  the  majorities  in  both  houses  of  Congress, 
soon  disclosed  his  diametrical  opposition  to  them. 

The  report  then  proceeds  to  show  the  several  devel 
opments  of  this  new  and  most  unfortunate  condition  of 
the  general  government,  effected  by  "  a  system  of  con 
tinual  and  unrelenting  exercise  of  executive  legisla 
tion, —  by  the  alternate  gross  abuse  of  constitutional 
power,  and  bold  assumption  of  powers  never  vested  in 
him  by  any  law, — resulting  in  four  several  vetoes, 
which,  in  the  course  of  fifteen  months,  had  suspended 
the  legislation  of  the  Union.  It  then  states  and  com 
ments  upon  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  President  for 
returning  this  bill  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
with  his  objections  to  it,  as  specified  in  the  veto  mes 
sage  referred  to  this  committee  ;  and,  after  a  rigid 
analysis  and  course  of  argument,  pronounces  them 
"feeble,  inconsistent,  and  unsatisfactory;"  after 
which  the  report  proceeds : 

"They  perceive  that  the  whole  legislative  power  of  the 
Union  has  been,  for  the  last  fifteen  months,  with  regard  to  the 
action  of  Congress  upon  measures  of  vital  importance,  in  a 
state  of  suspended  animation,  strangled  by  the  five  times 
repeated  stricture  of  the  executive  cord.  They  observe  that, 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  369 

under  these  unexampled  obstructions  to  the  exercise  of  their 
high  and  legitimate  duties,  they  have  hitherto  preserved  the 
most  respectful  forbearance  towards  the  Executive  Chief;  that 
while  he  has  time  after  time  annulled,  by  the  mere  act  of  his 
will,  their  commission  from  the  people  to  enact  laws  for  the 
common  welfare,  they  have  forborne  even  the  expression  of 
their  resentment  for  these  multiplied  insults  and  injuries 
They  believed  they  had  a  high  destiny  to  fulfil,  by  administer 
ing  to  the  people,  in  the  form  of  law,  remedies  for  the  suffer 
ings  which  they  had  too  long  endured.  The  will  of  one  man 
has  frustrated  all  their  labors,  and  prostrated  all  their  powers. 
The  majority  of  the  committee  believe  that  the  case  has 
occurred,  in  the  annals  of  our  Union,  contemplated  by  the 
founders  of  the  constitution,  by  the  grant  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  power  to  impeach  the  President  of  the 
United  States ;  but  they  are  aware  that  the  resort  to  that 
expedient  might,  in  the  present  condition  of  public  affairs, 
prove  abortive.  They  see  the  irreconcilable  difference  of  opin 
ion  and  of  action  between  the  legislative  and  executive  depart 
ments  of  the  government  is  but  sympathetic  with  the  same 
discordant  views  and  feelings  among  the  people.  To  them 
alone  the  final  issue  of  the  struggle  must  be  left.  In  sorrow 
and  mortification,  under  the  failure  of  all  their  labors  to  redeem 
the  honor  and  prosperity  of  their  country,  it  is  a  cheering  con 
solation  to  them  that  the  termination  of  their  own  official 
existence  is  at  hand  ;  that  they  are  even  now  about  to  return 
to  receive  the  sentence  of  their  constituents  upon  themselves ; 
that  the  legislative  power  of  the  Union,  crippled  and  disabled 
as  it  may  now  be,  is  about  to  pass,  renovated  and  revivified 
by  the  will  of  the  people,  into  other  hands,  upon  whom  will 
devolve  the  task  of  providing  that  remedy  for  the  public  dis 
tempers  which  their  own  honest  and  agonizing  energies  have 
in  vain  endeavored  to  supply. 

"  The  power  of  the  present  Congress  to  enact  laws  essential 
to  the  welfare  of  the  people  has  been  struck  with  apoplexy  by 
the  executive  hand.  Submission  to  his  will  is  the  only  condi 
tion  upon  which  he  will  permit  them  to  act.  For  the  enact 
ment  of  a  measure,  earnestly  recommended  by  himself,  he  for- 
24 


370  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

bids  their  action,  unless  coupled  with  a  condition  declared  by 
himself  to  be  on  a  subject  so  totally  different  that  he  will  no,f. 
suffer  them  to  be  coupled  in  the  same  law.  With  that  condi 
tion  Congress  cannot  comply.  In  this  state  of  things  he  has 
assumed,  as  the  committee  fully  believe,  the  exercise  of  the 
whole  legislative  power  to  himself,  and  is  levying  millions  of 
money  upon  the  people,  without  any  authority  of  law.  But 
the  final  decision  of  this  question  depends  neither  upon  legis 
lative  nor  executive,  but  upon  judicial  authority ;  nor  can  the 
final  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  upon  it  be  pronounced 
before  the  close  of  the  present  Congress.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  abusive  exercise  of  the  constitutional  power  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  arrest  the  action  of  Congress  upon  measures  vital  to 
the  welfare  of  the  people  has  wrought  conviction  upon  the 
minds  of  a  majority  of  the  committee  that  the  veto  power 
itself  must  be  restrained  and  modified  by  an  amendment  of 
the  constitution  itself;  a  resolution  for  which  they  accordingly 
herewith  respectfully  report." 

The  report  was  signed  by  ten  members  of  the  com 
mittee,  including  the  chairman.  The  resolution  with 
which  it  closed  provided  for  submitting  to  the  States 
a  proposed  modification  of  the  constitution,  by  sub 
stituting  the  words  "  majority  of  the  whole  number," 
instead  of  the  words  "two  thirds/'  by  which  the 
power  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to  pass  a  law, 
notwithstanding  the  veto  of  the  President,  is  at 
present  restricted. 

The  report  was  agreed  to  in  the  house  by  a  majority 
of  one  hundred  ayes  to  ninety  nays,  and  the  resolution 
itself  passed  by  a  majority  of  ninety-eight  ayes  to 
ninety  nays ;  but  the  constitution,  in  such  cases, 
requiring  two  thirds  majority,  it  was  of  consequence 
rejected. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  371 

In  November,  1842,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  a  lecture 
before  the  Franklin  Lyceum,  at  Providence,  Khode 
Island,  on  the  Social  Compact,  in  which  he  enters 
into  "  an  examination  of  the  principles  of  democracy, 
aristocracy,  and  universal  suffrage,  as  exemplified  in 
a  historical  review  of  the  present  constitution  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  with  some  notice  of 
the  origin  of  human  government,  and  remarks  on  the 
theories  of  divine  right,  as  maintained  by  Hobbes 
and  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  on  one  side,  and  by  Sydney, 
Locke,  Montesquieu,  and  Eousseau,  on  the  other." 

He  shows,  from  the  history  of  Massachusetts,  that 
the  fundamental  principle  asserted  in  the  fifth  article 
of  our  declaration  of  rights,  that  all  power  resides 
originally  in  the  people,  is  derived  from  the  above- 
nSm' effwHters,  and  explains  how  this  power  has  been 
practically  exercised  by  the  people  of  that  state. 
The  assertion  of  Rousseau,  that  the  social  compact 
can  be  formed  only  by  unanimous  consent,  because 
the  rule  itself  that  a  majority  of  votes  shall  prevail 
can  only  be  established  by  agreement,  that  is,  by 
compact,  Mr.  Adams  controverts,  maintaining  in  oppo 
sition  to  it  that  the  social  compact  constituting  the 
body-politic  is,  and  by  the  law  of  nature  must  be, 
a  compact  not  merely  of  individuals,  but  of  families. 
On  this  view  of  the  subject  he  largely  animadverts. 
The  philosophical  examination  of  the  foundations  of 
civil  society,  of  human  governments,  and  of  the  rights 
and  duties  of  man,  he  views  as  among  the  conse 
quences  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  The  question 
raised  by  Martin  Luther  involved  the  whole  theory  of 


372  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  rights  of  individual  man,  paramount  to  all  human 
authority.  The  talisman  of  human  rights  dissolved 
the  spell  of  political  as  well  as  of  ecclesiastical 
power.  The  Calvinists  of  Geneva  and  the  Puritans 
of  England  contested  the  right  of  kings  to  prescribe 
articles  of  faith  to  their  people,  and  this  question 
necessarily  drew  after  it  the  general  question  of  the 
origin  of  all  human  government.  In  search  of  its 
principle,  Hobbes,  a  royalist,  affirmed  that  the  state 
of  nature  between  man  and  man  was  a  state  of  war, 
whence  it  followed  that  government  originated  in 
conquest.  This  theory  is  directly  opposite  to  that 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  cuts  the  gordian  knot  with  the 
sword,  extinguishes  all  the  rights  of  man,  and  makes 
fear  the  corner-stone  of  government.  It  is  the  only 
theory  upon  which  slavery  can  be  justified,  as  con 
formable  to  the  law  of  nature.  This  is  Sir  John 
FalstafTs  law,  when,  speaking  of  Justice  Shallow, 
he  says,  "If  the  young  dace  be  a  bait  for  the  old 
pike,  I  see  no  reason  in  the  law  of  nature  why  I 
may  not  snap  at  him."  Sir  Kobert  Filmer,  by  a 
theory  far  more  plausible,  though  not  more  sound, 
than  that  of  Hobbes,  derived  the  origin  of  human 
government  from  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment,  from  the  grant  of  the  earth  to  Adam,  and 
afterwards  to  Noah. 

But  the  vital  error  of  Filmer  was  in  assuming 
that  the  natural  authority  of  the  father  over  the  child 
was  either  permanent  or  unlimited  ;  and  still  more 
that  the  authority  of  the  husband  over  the  wife  was 
unlimited.  Sir  Robert  Filmer  did  not  perceive  that 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUIN0Y    ADAMS.  373 

i 

t 

by  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  €rod  every  individual 
human  being  is  born  with  rights  which  no  other  indi 
vidual,  or  combination  of  individuals,  can  take  away  ; 
that  all  exercise  of  human  authority  must  be  under 
the  limitation  of  right  and  wrong ;  (and  that  all  despotic 
power  over  human  beings  is  exercised  in  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  nature  and  of  God  —  all,  Sir  John  Falstaff's 
law  of  nature  between  the  young  dace  and  the  old 
pike. 

The  history  of  Filmer's  work  was  remarkable. 
It  was  composed  and  published  in  the  heat  of  the 
struggle  between  King  Charles  the  First  and  the 
Commons  of  England,  which  terminated  in  the  over 
throw  of  the  monarchy,  and  in  the  death  of  King 
Charles  upon  the  scaffold.  It  was  the  theory  of 
government  on  which  the  cause  of  the  house  of  Stuart 
was  sustained.  No  man  can  be  surprised  that  such 
a  cause  was  swept  away  by  a  moral  and  political 
whirlwind;  that  it  carried  with  it  all  the  institutions 
of  civil  society,  so  that  its  march  was  a  wild  desola 
tion.  James,  by  relying  on  the  principles  of  Fil 
mer's  theory,  fell  back  into  the  arms  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  vainly  struggled  to  turn  back  the  tide  of 
religious  reformation,  and  revive  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  and  passive  obedience,  and  non-resistance.  The 
republican  spirit  had  slumbered  on  the  white  cliffs  of 
Albion,  and  in  his  sleep,  like  the  man-mountain  in 
Lilliput,  had  been  pinned  down  to  the  earth  by  the 
threads  of  a  spider's  web  for  cords.  On  the  first  reap 
pearance  of  Filmer's  book,  he  awoke,  and,  like  the 
strong  man  in  Israel,  at  the  cost  of  his  own  life,  shook 


374     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

down  the  temple  of  Dagon,  and  buried  himself  and 
the  Philistines  again  under  its  ruins. 

The  discourses  of  John  Locke  concerning  govern 
ment  demolished  while  they  immortalized  the  work 
of  Filmer,  whose  name  and  book  are  now  remem 
bered  only  to  be  detested.  But  the  first  principles 
of  morals  and  politics,  which  have  long  been  set 
tled,  acquire  the  authority  of  self-evident  truths, 
which,  when  first  discussed,  may  have  been  vehe 
mently  and  portentously  contested.  John  Locke,  a 
kindred  soul  to  Algernon  Sydney,  seven  years  after 
his  death  published  an  elaborate  system  of  govern 
ment,  in  which  he  declares  the  "false  principles  and 
foundation  of  Sir  Robert  Filmer  and  his  followers  are 
detected  and  overthrown/'  Subsequently,  he  pub 
lished  an  essay  concerning  the  true  original  extent 
and  end  of  civil  government.  "The  principles," 
says  Mr.  Adams,  "of  Sydney  and  Locke  constitute 
the  foundation  of  the  North  American  Declaration  of 
Independence  ;  and,  together  with  the  subsequent 
writings  of  Montesquieu  and  Rousseau,  that  of  the 
constitution  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts, 
and  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States." 
Neither  of  these  constitutions  separately,  nor  the  two 
in  combined  harmony,  can,  without  a  gross  and  fraud 
ulent  perversion  of  language,  be  termed  a  Democracy. 
They  are  neither  democracy,  aristocracy,  nor  monar 
chy.  They  form  together  a  mixed  government,  com 
pounded  not  only  of  the  three  elements  of  democracy, 
aristocracy,  and  monarchy,  but  with  a  fourth  added 
element,  Confederacy.  The  constitution  of  the  United 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  375 

States  when  adopted  was  so  far  from  being  con 
sidered  as  a  democracy,  that  Patrick  Henry  charged 
it,  in  the  Virginia  Convention,  with  an  awful  squint 
ing  towards  monarchy.  The  tenth  number  of  the 
Federalist,  written  by  James  Madison,  is  an  elab 
orate  and  unanswerable  essay  upon  the  vital  and  radi 
cal  difference  between  a  democracy  and  a  republic. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  disconnect  the  relation  between 
names  and  things.  When  the  anti-federal  party 
dropped  the  name  of  Republicans  to  assume  that  of 
Democrats,  their  principles  underwent  a  corresponding 
metamorphosis  ;  and  they  are  now  the  most  devoted 
and  most  obsequious  champions  of  executive  power  — 
the  very  life-guard  of  the  commander  of  the  armies 
and  navies  of  this  Union.  The  name  of  Democracy 
was  assumed  because  it  was  discovered  to  be  very 
taking  among  the  multitude  ;  yet,  after  all,  it  is  but 
the  investment  of  the  multitude  with  absolute  power. 
The  constitutions  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  are  both  the  work  of 
the  people  —  one  of  the  Union,  the  other  of  the  State 
—  not  of  the  whole  people  by  the  phantom  of  univer 
sal  suffrage,  but  of  the  whole  people  by  that  portion 
of  them  capable  of  contracting  for  the  whole.  They 
are  not  democracy,  nor  aristocracy,  nor  monarchy, 
but  a  compound  of  them  all,  of  which  democracy  is 
the  oxygen,  or  vital  air,  too  pure  in  itself  for  human 
respiration,  but  which  in  the  union  of  other  elements, 
equally  destructive  in  themselves  and  less  pure, 
forms  that  moral  and  political  atmosphere  in  which 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being. 


376  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

The  preceding  abstract,  given  almost  wholly  in  the 
language  of  Mr.  Adams,  shows  the  general  drift  of 
this  characteristic  essay. 

On  the  17th  of  September,  1842,  a  convention  of 
delegates  from  the  district  he  represented  received 
Mr.  Adams  at  Brain  tree,  and  expressed  their  thanks 
for  his  services  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  especially 
for  his  fidelity  in  their  defence  "  against  every  attempt 
of  Southern  representatives  and  their  Northern  allies 
to  sacrifice  at  the  altar  of  slavery  the  freedom  of 
speech  and  the  press,  the  right  of  petition,  the  pro 
tection  of  free  labor,  and  the  immunities  and  privi 
leges  of  Northern  citizens."  Mr.  Adams,  in  reply, 
after  expressing  his  sensibility  at  their  unabated  con 
fidence  in  the  integrity  of  his  intentions,  and  in  his 
capacity  to  serve  them,  declared  that  it  had  been  his 
endeavor  to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  his  station 
"  faithfully  and  gratefully  to  them;  faithfully  to  our 
native  and  beloved  Commonwealth ;  faithfully  to  our 
whole  common  country,  the  North  American  Union  ; 
faithfully  to  the  world  of  mankind,  in  every  quarter 
of  the  globe,  and  under  every  variety  of  condition  or 
complexion;  faithfully  to  that  creator,  God,  who  rules 
the  world  in  justice  and  mercy,  and  to  whom  our  final 
account  must  be  made  up  by  the  standard  of  those 
attributes."  He  then  proceeded  to  state,  that  on 
receiving  their  invitation  to  attend  that  meeting,  it 
had  been  his  intention  to  avail  himself  of  the  oppor 
tunity  to  unfold  to  them  the  professions,  princi 
pies,  and  practices,  of  the  federal  administration  of 
these  United  States,  under  the  successive  Presidents 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  377 

invested  with  executive  power,  from  the  day  when  he 
took  his  seat  as  their  representative  in  Congress  to 
the  then  present  hour. 

"  I  trusted  it  would  be  in  my  power  to  present  to  your  con 
templation,  not  only  the  outward  and  ostensible  indications 
of  federal  policy,  proclaimed  and  trumpeted  abroad  as  the 
maxims  of  the  Jackson,  Van  Buren,  and  Tyler  administrations, 
but  to  lay  bare  their  secret  purposes,  and  never  yet  divulged 
designs  for  the  future  government  or  dissolution  of  this  Union. 

"  Further  reflection  convinced  me  that  this  exposition 
would  require  more  time  than  you  could  possibly  devote  to  one 
meeting  to  hear  me.  My  friend  and  colleague,  Mr.  Appleton, 
has,  in  an  answer  to  an  invitation  of  his  constituents  to  a  pul> 
lie  dinner,  lifted  a  corner  of  the  veil,  and  opened  a  glance  at 
the  monstrous  and  horrible  object  beneath  it ;  but  South  Caro 
lina  nullification  itself,  with  its  appendages  of  separation, 
secession,  and  the  forty-bale  theory,  was  but  the  struggles  of 
Quixotism  dreaming  itself  Genius,  to  erect  on  the  basis  of 
state  sovereignty  a  system  for  seating  South  Carolina  slavery 
on  the  throne  of  this  Union  in  the  event  of  success  ;  or  of 
severing  the  present  Union,  and  instituting,  with  a  tier  of 
embryo  Southern  States  to  be  wrested  from  the  dismember 
ment  of  Mexico,  a  Southern  slaveholding  confederation  to 
balance  the  free  Republic  of  the  North. 

"  '  The  passage/  says  Mr.  Appleton,  '  of  the  revenue  bill 
imposing  discriminating  duties  with  a  view  to  the  protection 
and  encouragement  of  American  industry,  is,  under  the  cir 
cumstances,  an  event  of  the  very  highest  importance.  Not 
withstanding  the  system  had  been  formerly  established  in 
1816,  and  fortified  by  succeeding  legislation;  notwithstand 
ing  its  success  in  the  development  of  our  resources  and  the 
establishment  of  manufactures  and  arts,  surpassing  the  expect 
ation  of  the  most  sanguine  ;  notwithstanding  the  immense 
investments  of  capital  made  on  the  faith  of  the  national  legisla 
tion  inviting  such  application,  the  attempt  was  seriously  enter 
tained  of  breaking  down  this  whole  system,  with  a  reckless 


378     MEMOIR  OP  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

disregard  of  consequences,  either  in  the  wanton  destruction 
of  capital,  or,  what  is  far  more  important,  in  the  general  paraly 
sis  of  the  industry  of  the  country.  The  origin  of  this  attempt 
may  be  traced  to  the  mad  ambition  of  certain  politicians  of 
South  Carolina,  who,  in  1832,  formed  the  project  of  a  Southern 
Confederacy,  severed  from  the  rest  of  the  Union,  with  that  state 
for  its  centre,  as  affording  more  security  to  the  slave  states  for 
their  peculiar  institutions  than  exist  under  the  general  government. 
"  '  This  project  led  to  the  invention  of  a  theory  of  political 
economy,  which  was  maintained  with  an  ingenuity  and  perse 
verance  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  founded  on  the  assumption 
that  all  imports  are,  in  effect,  direct  taxes  upon  exports.  So 
indefatigable  were  the  promulgators  of  this  theory,  that  the 
whole  South  was  made  to  believe  that  a  protective  tariff  was 
a  system  of  plunder  levied  upon  their  productions  of  cotton, 
rice,  and  tobacco,  which  constituted  the  bulk  of  our  exports 
to  foreign  markets.' ' 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeds  to  state  that  the  principles 
of  nullification  were  never  more  inflexibly  maintained, 
never  more  inexorably  pursued,  than  they  had  been 
by  all  that  portion  of  the  South  which  had  given  them 
countenance,  from  the  day  of  the  death  of  William 
Henry  Harrison  to  the  present ,  and  that  nullification 
is  the  creed  of  the  executive  mansion  at  Washington, 
the  acting  President's  conscience,  and  the  woof  of  all 
his  vetoes. 

"  Nullification/'  he  adds,  "  portentous  and  fatal 
as  it  is  to  the  prospects  and  welfare  of  this  Union, 
is  not  the  only  instrument  of  Southern  domination 
wielded  by  the  executive  arm  at  Washington.  The 
dismemberment  of  our  neighboring  republic  of  Mex 
ico,  and  the  acquisition  of  an  immense  portion  of  her 
territories,  was  a  gigantic  and  darling  project  of 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  379 

Andrew  Jackson,  and  is  another  instrument  wielded  for 
the  same  purpose. 

"  Within  five  weeks  after  the  proclamation  of  the  constitution 
of  the  Republic  of  Texas  followed  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto  ;  and 
from  that  day  the  struggles  of  the  Southern  politicians,  who 
ruled  the  councils  of  this  nation,  were  for  upwards  of  two  years 
unremitting,  and  unrestrained  by  any  principles  of  honor,  hon 
esty,  and  truth  :  openly  avowed,  and  audaciously  proclaimed, 
whenever  they  dared ;  clandestinely  pursued,  under  delusive 
masks  and  false  colors,  whenever  the  occasion  required. 

"  No  sooner  was  the  event  of  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto 
known  than  memorials  and  resolutions,  from  various  parts  of 
the  Union,  were  poured  in  upon  Congress,  calling  upon  that 
body  for  the  immediate  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the 
Republic  of  Texas.  Many  of  these  memorials  and  resolutions 
came  from  the  free  states,  and  one  of  them  from  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Connecticut,  then  blindly  devoted  to  the  rank  Southern, 
sectional  policy  of  the  Jackson  administration,  by  that  infatu 
ation  of  Northern  sympathy  with  Southern  interests,  which 
Mr.  Appleton  points  out  to  our  notice,  and  the  true  purposes 
of  which  had  already  been  sufficiently  divulged  in  an  address 
of  Mr.  Clement  C.  Clay  to  the  Legislature  of  Alabama.  But 
there  was  another  more  hidden  impulse  to  this  extreme  solici 
tude  for  the  recognition  of  the  independence  of  Texas  work 
ing  in  the  free  states,  quite  as  ready  to  assume  the  mask  and 
cap  of  liberty  as  the  slave-dealing  champions  of  the  rights  of 
man.  The  Texan  land  and  liberty  jobbers  had  spread  the  con 
tagion  of  their  land-jobbing  traffic  all  over  the  free  states 
throughout  the  Union.  Land-jobbing,  stock-jobbing,  slave- 
jobbing,  rights-of-man-jobbing,  were  all,  hand  in  hand,  sweep 
ing  over  the  land  like  a  hurricane.  The  banks  were  plunging 
into  desperate  debts,  preparing  for  a  universal  suspension  of 
specie  payment,  under  the  shelter  of  legislative  protection  to 
flood  the  country  with  irredeemable  paper.  Gambling  specu 
lation  was  the  madness  of  the  day ;  and,  in  the  wide-spread 
ruin  which  we  are  now  witnessing  as  the  last  stage  of  this 
moral  pestilence,  Texan  bonds  and  Texan  lands  form  no  small 


380  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

portion  of  the  fragments  from  the  wreck  of  money  corporations 
contributing  their  assets  of  two  or  three  cents  to  the  dollar. 
All  these  interests  furnished  vociferous  declaimers  for  the 
recognition  of  Texan  independence. " 

Mr.  Adams  next  states  the  proceedings  of  Congress 
on  this  subject  during  the  whole  of  the  residue  of  the 
Jackson  administration,  terminating  with  the  recogni 
tion  by  Congress  of  the  independence  of  Texas.  At 
this  period  Mr.  Van  Buren  —  a  Northern  man  with 
Southern  principles  —  assumed  the  functions  of  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States.  But  the  recognition  of  the 
independence  of  Texas  availed  nothing  without  her 
annexation  to  the  United  States.  In  October,  1837, 
a  formal  proposition  from  the  Republic  of  Texas  for 
such  annexation  was  communicated  to  Congress,  with 
the  statement  that  it  had  been  declined  by  Mr.  Van 
Buren.  But  the  passion  for  the  annexation  of  Texas 
was  not  to  be  so  disconcerted.  Memorials  for  and 
against  its  annexation  poured  into  Congress,  and  were 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  "  In 
the  debate  which  arose  from  their  report/'  says  Mr. 
Adams,  "I  exposed  the  whole  system  of  duplicity 
and  perfidy  towards  Mexico,  which  had  marked  the 
Jackson  administration  from  its  commencement  to  its 
close.  It  silenced  the  clamors  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas  to  this  Union  for  three  years,  till  the  catastro 
phe  of  the  Van  Buren  administration.  The  people  of 
the  free  states  were  lulled  into  the  belief  that  the 
whole  project  was  abandoned,  and  that  they  should 
hear  no  more  of  the  slave-trade  cravings  for  the  an 
nexation  of  Texas.  Had  Harrison  lived,  they  would 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  381 

have  heard  no  more  of  it  to  this  day.  But  no  sooner 
was  John  Tyler  installed  into  the  President's  house 
than  nullification,  and  Texas,  and  war  with  Mexico, 
rose  again  upon  the  surface,  with  eye  steadily  fixed 
upon  the  polar  star  of  Southern  slave-dealing  suprem 
acy  in  the  government  of  the  Union/ ' 

Mr.  Adams  then  comments  upon  the  history  of  the 
Santa  Fe  expedition,  which  was  fitted  out  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1841,  shortly  after  the  accession  of  Mr.  Tyler, 
by  the  then  President  of  Texas,  having  been  orig 
inated  and  concerted  within  these  states,  and  carried 
on  chiefly  by  citizens  of  the  United  States.  That  it 
was  known,  countenanced,  and  encouraged,  at  the 
presidential  house,  was,  said  Mr.  Adams,  more  than 
questioned  ;  for,  while  it  was  on  foot,  and  before  it 
was  known,  frequent  hints  were  given  in  public  jour 
nals,  moved  by  Executive  impulse,  that  at  the  coming 
session  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  to  be  introduced 
by  a  citizen  of  the  highest  distinction.  "  But  the  Tex 
an  expedition  was  ill-starred.  Instead  of  taking  and 
rioting  upon  the  beauty  and  booty  of  Santa  Fe,  they 
were  all  captured  themselves,  without  even  the  glory  of 
putting  a  price  on  their  lives.  They  surrendered  with 
out  firing  a  gun."  The  failure  of  this  expedition  dis 
comfited  the  war  faction  in  Congress,  and  injured  for 
a  moment,  and  only  for  a  moment,  the  project  to  which 
Southern  nullification  clung  with  the  grasp  of  death. 

Mr.  Adams  next  proceeds  to  exhibit  the  evidence  to 
show  "the  participation  of  the  administration  at  Wash 
ington  with  this  incursion  of  banditti  from  Texas 
against  Santa  Fe,"  and  to  explain  "the  legislative 


382     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

exploit"  by  which  the  treasury  of  the  United  States 
was  made  to  contribute  to  "the  dismemberment  of 
Mexico,  and  the  annexation  of  an  immense  portion 
of  its  territory  to  the  slave  representation  of  the 
Union."  The  internal  evidence  he  regarded  as  irre 
sistible  that  "  the  expedition  against  Santa  Fe  was 
planned  within  your  boundaries,  and  committed  to  the 
execution  of  your  citizens,  under  the  shelter  of  Mexi 
can  banners  and  commissions." 

In  the  subsequent  portion  of  this  address  Mr.  Adams, 
regarding  the  principles  of  nullification  as  being  at  the 
basis  of  Mr.  Tyler's  whole  policy,  enters  at  large  into 
its  nature,  and  thus  speaks  of  its  origin  and  associa 
tion  with  democracy  : 

"  Let  me  advert  again  to  the  important  disclosure  in  the 
letter  of  Mr.  Appleton  to  his  constituents,  from  which  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  reading  to  you  an  extract.  Nullification 
was  generated  in  the  hot-bed  of  slavery.  It  drew  its  first 
breath  in  the  land  where  the  meaning  of  the  word  democracy 
is  that  a  majority  of  the  people  are  the  goods  and  chattels  of 
the  minority ;  that  more  than  one  half  of  the  people  are  not 
men,  women,  and  children,  but  things,  to  be  treated  by  their 
owners,  not  exactly  like  dogs  and  horses,  but  like  tables, 
chairs,  arid  joint-stools  ;  that  they  are  not  even  fixtures  to  the 
soil,  as  in  countries  where  servitude  is  divested  of  its  most 
hideous  features,  —  not  even  beings  in  the  mitigated  degrada 
tion  from  humanity  of  beasts,  or  birds,  or  creeping  things,  — 
but  destitute  not  only  of  the  sensibilities  of  our  own  race  of 
men,  but  of  the  sensations  of  all  animated  nature.  That  is 
the  native  land  of  nullification,  and  it  is  a  theory  of  constitu 
tional  law  worthy  of  its  origin.  Democracy,  pure  democracy, 
has  at  least  its  foundation  in  a  generous  theory  of  human 
rights.  It  is  founded  on  the  natural  equality  of  mankind.  It 
is  the  corner-stone  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  the  first 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  383 

element  of  all  lawful  government  upon  earth.  Democracy  is 
self-government  of  the  community  by  the  conjoint  will  of  the 
majority  of  numbers.  What  communion,  what  affinity,  can 
there  be  between  that  principle  and  nullification,  which  is  the 
despotism  of  a  corporation  —  unlimited,  unrestrained,  sovereign 
power  ?  Never,  never  was  amalgamation  so  preposterous  and 
absurd  as  that  of  nullification  and  democracy." 

Of  the  hostility  of  nullification  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  free  states  he  thus  speaks : 

"The  root  of  the  doctrine  of  nullification  is  that  if  the  inter 
nal  improvement  of  the  country  should  be  left  to  the  legislative 
management  of  the  national  government,  and  the  proceeds  of 
the  sales  of  the  public  lands  should  be  applied  as  a  perpetual 
and  self-accumulating  fund  for  that  purpose,  the  blessings 
unceasingly  showered  upon  the  people  by  this  process  would 
60  grapple  the  affections  of  the  people  to  the  national  author 
ity,  that  it  would,  in  process  of  time,  overshadow  that  of  the 
state  governments,  and  settle  the  preponderancy  of  power  in 
the  free  states  ;  and  then  the  undying  worm  of  conscience 
twinges  with  terror  for  the  fate  of  the  peculiar  institution. 
Slavery  stands  aghast  at  the  prospective  promotion  of  the  gen 
eral  welfare,  and  flies  to  nullification  for  defence  against  the 
energies  of  freedom,  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man." 

After  stating  and  commenting  upon  the  policy  of 
General  Jackson,  as  having  for  its  object  the  "  dis 
membering  of  Mexico,  and  restoring  slavery  to  Texas, 
and  of  surrounding  the  South  with  a  girdle  of  slave 
states,  to  eternize  the  blessings  of  the  peculiar  insti 
tution,  and  spread  them  like  a  garment  of  praise  over 
the  whole  North  American  Union,"  he  explained 
the  effect  of  party  divisions  always  operating  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  character  of  the  several  pro 
portions  of  their  power.  Their  results,  in  tending  tc 


384  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCT    ADAMS. 

revive  and  strengthen  slavery  and  the  slave-trade, 
which  Mr.  Adams  then  foretold,  excited  melancholy 
anticipations  in  the  mind  of  every  reflecting  freeman. 
What  was  then  prophecy  is  now  history. 

"  There  are  two  different  party  divisions  always  operating 
in  the  House  .of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  —  one 
sectional,  North  and  South,  or,  in  other  words,  slave  and  free  ; 
the  other  political  —  both  sides  of  which  have  been  known  at 
different  times  by  different  names,  but  are  now  usually  denom 
inated  Whigs  and  Democrats.  The  Southern  or  slave  party, 
outnumbered  by  the  free,  are  cemented  together  by  a  common, 
intense  interest  of  property  to  the  amount  of  twelve  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars  in  human  beings,  the  very  existence 
of  which  is  neither  allowed  nor  tolerated  in  the  North.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  many  theoretical  reasoners  on  the  subject  of 
government  that,  whatever  may  be  its  form,  the  ruling  power 
of  every  nation  is  its  property.  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  one  of  his 
messages  to  Congress,  gravely  pointed  out  to  them  the  anti- 
republican  tendencies  of  associated  wealth.  Reflect  now  upon 
the  tendencies  of  twelve  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of  asso 
ciated  wealth,  directly  represented  in  your  national  legislature 
by  one  hundred  members,  together  with  one  hundred  and  forty 
members  representing  persons  only  —  freemen,  not  chattels. 
Reflect,  also,  that  this  twelve  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of 
property  is  peculiar  in  its  character,  and  comes  under  a  classi 
fication  once  denominated  by  a  Governor  of  Virginia  property 
acquired  by  crime;  that  it  sits  uneasy  upon  the  conscience  of 
its  owner ;  that,  in  the  purification  of  human  virtue,  and  the 
progress  of  the  Christian  religion,  it  has  become,  and  is  daily 
becoming,  more  and  more  odious  ;  that  Washington  and  Jef 
ferson,  themselves  slaveholders,  living  and  dying,  bore  testi 
mony  against  it ;  that  it  was  the  dying  REMORSE  of  John 
Randolph :  that  it  is  renounced  and  abjured  by  the  supreme 
pontiff  of  the  Roman  Church,  abolished  with  execration  by 
the  Mahometan  despot  of  Tunis,  shaken  to  its  foundations 
by  the  imperial  autocrat  of  all  the  Russias  and  the  absolute 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  385 

monarch  of  Austria;  —  all,  all  bearing  reluctant  and  extorted 
testimony  to  the  self-evident  truth  that,  by  the  laws  of  nature 
and  nature's  God,  man  cannot  be  the  property  of  man.  Recol 
lect  that  the  first  cry  of  human  feeling  against  this  unhallowed 
outrage  upon  human  rights  came  from  ourselves  —  from  the 
Quakers  of  Pennsylvania ;  that  it  passed  from  us  to  England, 
from  England  to  France,  and  spread  over  the  civilized  world  ; 
that,  after  struggling  for  nearly  a  century  against  the  most 
sordid  interests  and  most  furious  passions  of  man,  it  made  its 
way  at  length  into  the  Parliament,  and  ascended  the  throne,  of 
the  British  Isles.  The  slave-trade  was  made  piracy  first  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  then  by  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain. 

"But  the  curse  fastened  by  the  progress  of  Christian  char 
ity  and  of  human  rights  upon  the  African  slave-trade  could 
not  rest  there.  If  the  African  slave-trade  was  piracy,  the 
coasting  American  slave-trade  could  not  be  innocent,  nor 
could  its  aggravated  turpitude  be  denied.  In  the  sight  of  the 
same  God  who  abhcrs  the  iniquity  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
neither  the  American  slave-trade  nor  slavery  itself  can  be  held 
guiltless.  From  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
therefore,  the  British  Parliament,  impelled  by  the  irresistible 
influence  of  the  British  people,  proceeded  to  point  the  battery 
of  its  power  against  slavery  itself.  At  the  expense  of  one 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  it  abolished  slavery,  and  emanci 
pated  all  the  slaves  in  the  British  transatlantic  colonies ;  and 
the  government  entered  upon  a  system  of  negotiation  with  all 
the  powers  of  the  world  for  the  ultimate  extinction  of  slavery 
throughout  the  globe. 

"The  utter  and  unqualified  inconsistency  of  slavery,  in  any 
of  its  forms7~wiTh~"llie^principles  of  the  North  American  Revo 
lution,  and  the  Declaration  of  our  Independence,  had  so  forci 
bly  struck  the  Southern  champions  of  our  rights,  that  the  abo 
lition  of  slavery  and  the  emancipation  of  slaves  was  a  darling 
project "of  Thomas  Jefferson  from  his  first  entrance  into  public 
life  to  the  last  years  of  his  existence.  But  the  associated 
wealth  of  the  slaveholders  outweighed  the  principles  of  the 
Revolution,  and  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  a 
25 


386  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUIXCY    ADAMS. 

compromise  was  established  between  slavery  and  freedom. 
The  extent  of  the  sacrifice  of  principle  made  by  the  North  in 
this  compromise  can  be  estimated  only  by  its  practical  effects. 
The  principle  is  that  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  is  a  representation  only  of  the  persons  and  free 
dom  of  the  North,  and  of  the  persons,  property,  and  slavery, 
of  the  South.  Its  practical  operation  has  been  to  give  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  house,  and  in  every  department  of  the 
government,  into  the  hands  of  the  minority  of  numbers.  For 
practical  results  look  to  the  present  composition  of  your  gov 
ernment  in  all  its  departments.  The  President  of  the  United 
States,  the  President  of  the  Senate,  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
are  al!  slaveholders.  The  Chief  Justice  and  four  out  of  the 
nine  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  are 
slaveholders.  The  commander-in-chief  of  your  army  and  the 
general  next  in  command  are  slaveholders.  A  vast  majority 
of  all  the  officers  of  your  navy,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
are  slaveholders.  Of  six  heads  of  the  executive  departments, 
three  are  slaveholders  ;  securing  thus,  with  the  President,  a 
majority  in  all  cabinet  consultations  and  executive  councils. 
From  the  commencement  of  this  century,  upwards  of  forty 
years,  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  has  always  been  held  by 
slaveholders  ;  and  when,  upon  the  death  of  Judge  Marshall, 
the  two  senior  justices  upon  the  bench  were  citizens  of  the 
free  states,  and  unsurpassed  in  eminence  of  reputation  both 
for  learning  in  the  law  and  for  spotless  integrity,  they  were 
both  overlooked  and  overslaughed  by  a  slaveholder,  far  infe 
rior  to  either  of  them  in  reputation  as  a  lawyer,  and  chiefly 
eminent  for  his  obsequious  servility  to  the  usurpations  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  for  which  this  unjust  elevation  to  the  Su 
preme  Judicial  bench  was  the  reward. 

"As  to  the  house  itself,  if  an  article  of  the  constitution  had 
prescribed,  or  a  standing  rule  of  the  house  had  required,  that 
no  other  than  a  slaveholder  should  ever  be  its  Speaker,  the 
regulation  could  not  be  more  rigorously  observed  than  it  is  by 
the  compact  movements  of  the  slave  representation  in  the 
house.  Of  the  last  six  speakers  of  the  house,  including  the 
present,  every  one  has  been  a  slaveholder.  It  is  so  much  a 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  387 

matter  of  course  to  see  such  a  person  in  the  chair,  that,  if  a 
Northern  man  but  thinks  of  aspiring  to  the  chair,  he  is  only 
made  a  laughing-stock  for  the  house. 

"  With  such  consequences  staring  us  in  the  face,  what  are 
we  to  think  when  we  are  told  that  the  government  of  tho 
United  States  is  a  democracy  of  numbers  —  a  government  by 
a  majority  of  the  people  ?  Do  you  not  see  that  the  one  hun 
dred  representatives  of  persons,  property,  and  slavery,  march 
ing  in  solid  phalanx  upon  every  question  of  interest  to  their 
constituents,  will  always  outnumber  the  one  hundred  and  forty 
representatives  only  of  persons  and  freedom,  scattered  as  their 
votes  will  always  be  by  conflicting  interests,  prejudices,  and 
passions  ? 

"  But  this  is  not  all.  The  second  party  division  in  the  house 
to  which  I  have  alluded  is  political,  and  known  at  present 
by  the  names  of  Whigs  and  Democrats,  or  Locofocos.  The 
latter  are  remarkable  for  an  exquisite  tenderness  of  affec 
tion  for  the  people,  arid  especially  for  the  poor,  provided  their 
skins  are  white,  and  against  the  rich.  But  it  is  no  less  remark 
able  that  the  princely  slaveholders  of  the  South  are  among  the 
most  thoroughgoing  of  the  Democrats  ;  and  their  alliance  with 
the  Northern  Democracy  is  one  of  the  cardinal  points  of  their 
policy. " 

The  residue  of  this  address  is  devoted  to  a  searching 
and  severe  examination  of  the  whole  course  of  Presi 
dent  Tyler's  administration,  showing  that  "the  sec 
tional  division  of  parties  —  in  other  words,  the  conflict 
between  freedom  and  slavery  —  is  the  axle  round 
which  the  administration  of  the  national  government 
revolves."  "  The  political  divisions  with  him,  and 
with  all  Southern  statesmen  of  his  stamp,  are  mere 
instruments  of  power  to  purchase  auxiliary  support  to 
the  cause  of  slavery  even  from  the  freemen  of  the 
North." 

In  closing  this  most  illustrative  address,  he  apolo 


388     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

gizes  to  his  constituents  for  any  language  he  may  have 
used  in  debate  which  might  be  deemed  harsh  or  acri 
monious,  and  asks  them  to  consider  the  adversaries 
with  whom  he  had  to  contend  ;  the  virulence  and  ran 
cor,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  country,  with 
which  he  had  been  pursued  ;  and  to  remember  that, 
' '  for  the  single  offence  of  persisting  to  assert  the  right 
of  the  people  to  petition,  and  the  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press,  he  had  been  twice  dragged  before 
the  house  to  be  censured  and  expelled. "  One  of  his 
assailants,  Thomas  F.  Marshall,  had  declared,  in  an 
address  to  his  constituents,  his  motives  for  the  past,  and 
his  purposes  for  the  future,  in  the  following  words  : 

"Though  petitions  to  dissolve  the  Union  be  poured  in  by 
thousands,  I  shall  not  again  interfere  on  the  floor  of  Congress, 
since  the  house  have  virtually  declared  that  there  is  nothing 
contemptuous  or  improper  in  offering  them,  and  are  willing 
again  to  afford  Mr.  Adams  an  opportunity  of  sweeping  all  the 
strings  of  discord  that  exist  in  our  country.  I  acted  as  I 
thought  for  the  best,  being  sincerely  desirous  to  check  that 
man,  who,  if  he  could  be  removed  from  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  or  silenced  on  the  exasperating  subject  to  which  he 
seems  to  have  devoted  himself,  none  other,  I  believe,  could  be 
found  hardy  enough,  or  bad  enough,  to  fill  his  place." 

"Besides  this  special  and  avowed  malevolence 
against  me,"  Mr.  Adams  remarks,  —  "this  admitted 
purpose  to  expel  or  silence  me,  for  the  sake  of  brow 
beating  all  other  members  of  the  free  representation, 
by  establishing  over  them  the  reign  of  terror,  —  a  pecu 
liar  system  of  tactics  in  the  house  has  been  observed 
towards  me,  by  silencers  of  the  slave  representation 
and  their  allies  of  the  Northern  Democracy/' 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  389 

The  system  of  tactics  to  which  he  alludes  was,  first, 
to  turn  him  out  of  the  office  of  chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and,  this  failing,  to  induce 
a  majority  of  the  servile  portion  of  that  committee  to 
refuse  any  longer  to  serve  with  him  ;  their  purpose 
being  exactly  that  of  Mr.  Marshall,  to  remove  him  from 
the  councils  of  the  nation,  or  to  silence  him,  for  the 
sake  of  intimidating  all  others  by  "an  ostentatious 
display  of  a  common  determination  not  to  serve  with 
any  man  who  would  not  submit  to  the  gag-rule,  and 
would  persist  in  presenting  abolition  petitions/*  Mr. 
Adams  then  illustrates  the  powerful  effect  of  such 
movements  to  overawe  members  from  the  free  states. 

"Another  practice,"  he  observed,  "of  this  com 
munion  of  Southern,  sectional,  and  Locofoco  antip 
athy  against  me  is,  that  I  never  can  take  part  in  any 
debate  upon  an  important  subject,  be  it  only  upon 
a  mere  abstraction,  but  a  pack  opens  upon  me  of 
personal  invective  in  return.  Language  has  no  word 
of  reproach  or  railing  that  is  not  hurled  at  me  ;  and 
the  rules  of  the  house  allow  me  no  opportunity  to 
reply  till  every  other  member  of  the  house  has  had 
his  turn  to  speak,  if  he  pleases.  By  another  rule  every 
debate  is  closed  by  a  majority  whenever  they  get 
weary  of  it.  The  previous  question,  or  a  motion  to 
lay  the  subject  on  the  table,  is  interposed,  and  I  am 
not  allowed  to  reply  to  the  grossest  falsehoods  and 
most  invidious  misrepresentations." 

This  course  of  party  tactics  Mr.  Adams  exhibits 
by  a  particular  narrative  of  the  misrepresentation  to 
ivhich  he  had  been  subjected,  closing  his  statement 


B90  MEMO  I II     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

with  the  following  acknowledgment:  "I  must  do 
many  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  from  the  South  the  justice  to  say  that  their 
treatment  of  me  is  dictated  far  more  by  the  passions 
and  prejudices  of  their  constituents  than  by  their  own. 
Were  it  not  for  this  curse  of  slavery,  there  are  some 
of  them  with  whom  I  should  be  on  terms  of  the  most 
intimate  and  confidential  friendship.  There  are  many 
for  whom  I  entertain  high  esteem,  respect,  and  affec 
tionate  attachment.  There  are  among  them  those  who 
have  stood  by  me  in  my  trials,  and  scorned  to  join  in 
the  league  to  sacrifice  me  as  a  terror  to  others." 

In  September,  1842,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Norfolk 
County  Temperance  Society,  Mr.  Adams  delivered  at 
Quincy  an  address,  —  not  perhaps  in  coincidence  with 
the  prevailing  expectations  of  that  society,  but  in 
perfect  unison  with  his  own  characteristic  spirit  of 
independence.  lie  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the 
effect  of  the  principles  of  total  abstinence  from  the 
use  of  spirituous  liquors,  the  administration  of  pledges, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  contracting  of  engagements  by 
vows  ;  and  examined  the  whole  subject  with  reference 
to  the  essential  connection  which  exists  between  tem 
perance  and  religion.  In  the  course  of  his  argument 
he  maintains  that  the  moral  principles  inculcated  by 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  Old  Testament,  with  regard  to 
temperance,  are, —  1.  That  the  temperate  use  of  wine 
is  innocent,  and  without  sin.  2.  That  excess  in  it  is 
a  heinous  sin.  3.  That  the  voluntary  assumption  of 
a  vow  or  pledge  of  total  abstinence  is  an  effort  of 
exalted  virtue,  and  highly  acceptable  in  the  sight 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  391 

of  God.  4.  That  the  habit  of  excess  in  the  use  of 
wine  is  an  object  of  unqualified  abhorrence  and  dis 
gust.  He  concluded  with  a  warning  to  his  fellow- 
citizens  to  "  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
has  made  you  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again  with 
the  yoke  of  bondage  ; "  and,  after  applauding  the 
members  of  the  Norfolk  County  Temperance  Society 
for  their  attempts  to  suppress  intemperance,  declaring 
it  a  holy  work,  and  invoking  the  blessing  of  Heaven 
on  their  endeavors,  he  bids  them  "go  forth  as  mis 
sionaries  of  Christianity  among  their  own  kindred. 
Go,  with  the  commendation  of  the  Saviour  to  his 
apostles  when  he  first  sent  them  forth  to  redeem  the 
world  :  c  Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents,  and  harm 
less  as  doves/  In  the  ardor  of  your  zeal  for  moral 
reform  forget  not  the  rights  of  personal  freedom.  All 
excess  is  of  the  nature  of  intemperance.  Self-govern 
ment  is  the  foundation  of  all  our  political  and  social 
institutions  ;  and  it  is  by  self-government  alone  that 

the  laws  of  temperance  can  be  enforced Ab9ve 

all,  let  no  tincture  of  party  politics  be  mingled 
with  the  pure  stream  from  the  fountain  of  temper 


ance." 


The  spirit  of  this  address,  and  the  intimate  knowl 
edge  of  the  Scriptures  Mr.  Adams  possessed,  will  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  extract : 

"Throughout  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  the  vine  is 
represented  as  one  of  the  most  precious  blessings  bestowed  by 
the  Creator  upon  man.  In  the  incomparable  fable  of  Jotham, 
when  he  lifted  up  his  voice  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Gerizim, 
and  cried  to  the  men  of  Shechem,  '  Hearken  unto  me,  ye 


392  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

men  of  Shechem,  that  God  may  hearken  unto  you/  he  told 
them  that  when  the  trees  of  the  forest  went  forth  to  anoint 
them  a  king  to  reign  over  them,  they  offered  the  crown  suc 
cessively  to  the  olive-tree,  the  fig-tree,  and  the  vine.  They 
all  declined  to  accept  the  royal  dignity  ;  and  when  it  came  to 
the  turn  of  the  vine  to  assign  the  reasons  for  his  refusal,  he 
said,  '  Should  I  leave  my  wine,  which  cheereth  God  and  man, 
and  go  to  be  promoted  over  the  trees  ?  '  In  the  one  hundred 
and  fourth  Psalm,  — that  most  magnificent  of  all  descriptions 
of  the  glory,  the  omnipotence,  and  the  goodness  of  the  Cre 
ator,  God,  —  wine  is  enumerated  among  the  richest  of  his 
blessings  bestowed  upon  man.  'He  causeth  the  grass  to 
grow/  says  the  Psalmist,  'for  the  cattle,  and  herb  for  the 
service  of  man,  that  he  may  bring  forth  food  out  of  the  earth, 
and  wine  that  maketh  glad  the  heart  of  man,  and  oil  to  make 
his  face  to  shine,  and  bread  that  strengthened  man's  heart/ 

"  But,  while  wine  was  thus  classed  among  the  choicest  com 
forts  and  necessaries  of  life,  the  cautions  and  injunctions 
against  the  inordinate  use  of  it  are  repeated  and  multiplied  in 
every  variety  of  form.  '  Wine  is  a  mocker/  says  Solomon 
(Prov.  20:  1);  'strong  drink  is  raging;  and  whosoever  is 
deceived  thereby  is  not  wise.'  '  He  that  loveth  pleasure  shall 
be  a  poor  man ;  he  that  loveth  wine  and  oil  shall  not  be  rich/ 
(21:  IT.)  'Who  hath  woe?  who  hath  sorrow?  who  hath 
contentions  ?  who  hath  babbling  ?  who  hath  wounds  without 
cause  ?  who  hath  redness  of  eyes  ?  They  that  tarry  long  at 
the  wine ;  they  that  go  to  seek  mixed  wine.  Look  not  thou 
upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red,  when  it  giveth  its  color  in  the 
cup,  when  it  moveth  itself  aright/  —  say,  like  sparkling  Cham 
pagne. —  'At  the  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like 
an  adder.  Thine  eyes  shall  behold  strange  wonders,  and  thine 
heart  shall  utter  perverse  things  ;  yea,  thou  shalt  be  as  he  that 
lieth  down  in  the  midst  of  the  sea,  or  as  he  that  lieth  on  the 
top  of  a  mast.  They  have  stricken  me,  shalt  thou  say,  and  I 
was  not  sick  ;  they  have  beaten  me,  and  I  felt  it  not :  when 
shall  I  awake  ?  I  will  seek  it  yet  again/  Never  was  so 
exquisite  a  picture  of  drunkenness  and  the  drunkard  painted 
by  the  hand  of  man. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  393 

"Yet  in  all  this  there  is  no  interdict  upon  the  use  of  wine. 
The  caution  and  the  precept  are  against  excess." 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1843,  Mr.  Adams  delivered 
before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  a  dis 
course  in  celebration  of  the  Second  Centennial  Anni 
versary  of  the  New  England  Confederacy  of  1643. 
This  work  is  characterized  by  that  breadth  and  depth 
of  research  for  which  he  was  distinguished  and  emi 
nently  qualified.  It  includes  traces  of  the  early  set 
tlements  of  Virginia,  New  England,  Pennsylvania, 
and  New  York  ;  of  the  causes  of  each,  and  the  spirit 
in  which  they  were  made  and  conducted,  and  of  the 
principles  which  they  applied  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  aboriginals  of  the  forest.  He  then  proceeds  to 
give  an  account  of  the  confederation  of  the  four  New 
England  colonies,  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  Connect 
icut,  and  New  Haven,  in  1643,  with  appropriate 
statements  of  the  principles  and  conduct  of  the  found 
ers  of  each  settlement,  and  of  the  character  and 
motives  of  the  leaders  of  each  of  them. 

The  origin,  motives,  and  objects  of  that  confedera 
tion,  he  explains  ;  analyzing  the  distribution  of  power 
between  the  commissioners  of  the  whole  confederacy 
and  among  the  separate  governments  of  the  colonies, 
and  showing  that  it  combined  the  same  identical 
principles  with  those  which  gathered  and  united  the 
thirteen  English  colonies  as  the  prelude  to  the  Revo 
lution  which  severed  them  forever  from  their  national 
connection  with  Great  Britain  ;  and  that  the  New 
England  Confederacy  of  1643  was  the  model  and  pro 
totype  of  the  North  American  Confederacy  of  1774. 


304  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

His  sketch  of  the  founder  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode 
Island  will  give  a  general  idea  of  the  spirit  and  bear 
ing  of  this  discourse  : 

"  Roger  Williams  was  a  man  who  maybe  considered  the  very 
impersonation  of  a  combined  conscientious  and  contentious 
spirit.  Born  in  the  land  of  Sir  Hugh  Evans  and  Captain  Flu- 
ellen,  educated  at  the  University  of  Oxford,  at  the  very  period 
when  the  monarchical  Episcopal  Church  of  England  was  purg 
ing  herself,  as  by  fire,  from  the  corruptions  of  the  despotic 
and  soul-degrading  Church  of  Rome,  he  arrived  at  Boston  in 
February,  1630,  about  half  a  year  after  the  landing  of  the 
Massachusetts  Colony  of  Governor  Winthrop.  He  was  an 
eloquent  preacher,  stiff  and  self-confident  in  his  opinions ; 
ingenious,  powerful,  and  commanding,  in  impressing  them 
upon  others ;  inflexible  in  his  adherence  to  them ;  and,  by  an 
inconsistency  peculiar  to  religious  enthusiasts,  combining  the 
most  amiable  and  affectionate  sympathies  of  the  heart  with  the 
most  repulsive  and  inexorable  exclusions  of  conciliation,  com 
pliance,  or  intercourse,  with  his  adversaries  in  opinion. 

"  On  his  first  arrival  he  went  to  Salem,  and  there  soon  made 
himself  so  acceptable  by  his  preaching,  that  the  people  of  Mr. 
Skelton's  church  invited  him  to  settle  with  them  as  his  col 
league.  But  he  had  broached,  and  made  no  hesitation  in 
maintaining,  two  opinions  imminently  dangerous  to  the  very 
existence  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  and  certainly  not 
remarkable  for  that  spirit  of  charity  or  toleration  upon  which 
he  afterwards  founded  his  own  government,  and  which  now, 
in  after  ages,  constitutes  his  brightest  title  to  renown.  The 
first  of  these  opinions  was  that  the  royal  charter  to  the  Colony 
of  Massachusetts  was  a  nullity,  because  the  King  of  England 
had  no  right  to  grant  lands  in  foreign  countries,  which  belonged 
of  right  to  their  native  inhabitants.  This  opinion  struck  di 
rectly  at  all  right  of  property  held  under  the  authority  of  the 
royal  charter,  and,  followed  to  its  logical  conclusions,  would 
have  proved  the  utter  impotence  of  the  royal  charter  to  confer 
power  of  government,  any  more  than  it  could  convey  property 
in  the  soil. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  395 

"  The  other  opinion  was  that  the  Church  of  Boston  was 
criminal  for  having  omitted  to  make  a  public  declaration  of 
repentance  for  having  held  communion  with  the  Church  of 
England  before  their  emigration  ;  and  upon  that  ground  he 
had  refused  to  join  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  Boston. 

"  By  the  subtlety  and  vehemence  of  his  persuasive  powers 
he  had  prevailed  upon  Endicott  to  look  upon  the  cross  of  St. 
George  in  the  banners  of  England  as  a  badge  of  idolatry,  and 
to  cause  it  actually  to  be  cut  out  of  the  flag  floating  at  the 
fort  in  Salem.  The  red  cross  of  St.  George  in  the  national 
banner  of  England  was  a  grievous  and  odious  eye-sore  to  mul 
titudes,  probably  to  a  great  majority,  of  the  Massachusetts 
colonists  ;  but,  in  the  eyes  of  the  government  of  the  colony, 
it  was  the  sacred  badge  of  allegiance  to  the  monarchy  at 
home,  already  deeply  jealous  of  the  purposes  and  designs  of 
the  Puritan  colony." 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1843,  Mr.  Adams,  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  citizens  of  Bangor,  in  Maine,  declin 
ing  their  invitation  to  deliver  an  address  on  the  1st 
of  August,  the  anniversary  of  British  emancipation 
of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  thus  expressed  his 
views  on  that  subject : 

"The  extinction  of  SLAVERY  from  the  face  of  the  earth  is  a 
problem,  moral,  political,  religious,  which  at  this  moment  rocks 
the  foundations  of  human  society  throughout  the  regions  of 
civilized  man.  It  is  indeed  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
consummation  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  only  as  immor 
tal  beings  that  all  mankind  can  in  any  sense  be  said  to  be  born 
equal ;  and  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  affirms  as 
a  self-evident  truth  that  all  men  are  born  equal,  it  is  precisely 
the  same  as  if  the  affirmation  had  been  that  all  men  are  born 
with  immortal  souls  ;  for,  take  away  from  man  his  soul,  the 
immortal  spirit  that  is  within  him,  and  he  would  be  a  mere 
tamable  beast  of  the  field,  and,  like  others  of  his  kind,  would 


306     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

become  the  property  of  his  tamer.  Hence  it  is,  too,  that,  by 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  God,  man  can  never  be  made  the 
property  of  man.  And  herein  consists  the  fallacy  with  which 
the  holders  of  slaves  often  delude  themselves,  by  assuming* 
that  the  test  of  property  is  human  law.  The  soul  of  one  man 
cannot  by  human  law  be  made  the  property  of  another.  The 
owner  of  a  slave  is  the  owner  of  a  living  corpse  ;  but  he  is 
not  the  owner  of  a  man.'7 

In  illustration  of  this  principle  he  observes  that 
"  the  natural  equality  of  mankind,  affirmed  by  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  be  held 
up  by  them  as  self-evident  truth,  was  not  so  held  by 
their  enemies.  Great  Britain  held  that  sovereign 
power  was  unlimi table,  and  the  natural  equality  of 
mankind  was  a  fable.  France  and  Spain  had  no  sym 
pathies  for  the  rights  of  human  nature.  Vergennes 
plotted  with  Gustavus  of  Sweden  the  revolution  in 
Sweden  from  liberty  to  despotism.  Turgot,  shortly 
after  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  advised  Louis 
Sixteenth  that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  France  and 
Spain  that  the  insurrection  of  the  Anglo-American 
colonies  should  be  suppressed.  But  none  of  them  fore 
saw  or  imagined  what  would  be  the  consequence  of 
the  triumphant  establishment  in  the  continent  of 
North  America  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  American  nation 
on  the  foundation  of  the  natural  equality  of  mankind, 
and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man/' 

Mr.  Adams  then  states  and  reasons  upon  these 
consequences  in  Europe  and  the  United  States :  the 
abolition  of  slavery  by  the  judicial  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  three  years  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Since  that  day  there 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  397 

has  not  been  a  slave  within  that  state.  The  same 
principle  is  corrob orate dj^y^the  fact^tti^,t_the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  imputes  slavery  in  Virginia  to 
George  the  Third,  as  one  of  the  crimes  which  proved 
him  to  he  a  tyrant,  unfit  to  rule  a  free  people  ;  and 
that  at  least  twenty  slaveholders,  if  not  thirty,  among 
whom  were  George  Washington  and  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  avowed  abolitionists,  were  signers  of  that  Dec 
laration. 

He  next  states  that  "  the  result  of  the  North  Amer 
lean  revolutionary  war  had  prepared  the  minds  of  the 
people  of  the  British  nation  to  contemplate  with  calm 
composure  the  new  principle  engrafted  upon  the  asso 
ciation  of  the  civilized  race  of  man,  the  self-evident 
truth,  the  natural  equality  of  mankind  and  the  rights 
of  man."  He  then  introduces  Anthony  Benezet,  a 
member  of  the  society  of  Friends,  and  Granville 
Sharp,  an  English  philanthropist,  "  blowing  the  single 
horn  of  human  liberty  and  the  natural  equality  of 
mankind  against  the  institution  of  slavery,  practised 
from  time  immemorial  by  all  nations,  ancient  and 
modern  ;  supported  by  the  denunciation  of  the  traffic 
in  slaves  by  the  popular  writers  both  in  France  and 
England,  —  by  Locke,  Addison,  and  Sterne,  as  well 
as  by  Raynal,  Eousseau,  Montesquieu,  and  Voltaire  ; 
succeeded  by  the  association  of  Thomas  Clarkson  and 
two  or  three  Englishmen  together,  for  the  purpose  of 
arraying  the  power  of  the  British  empire  for  the  total 
abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  earth."  The  suc 
cess  of  that  association  he  next  illustrates, — until  this 
"emanation  of  the  Christian  faith  is  now,  under  the 


398     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

cross  of  St.  George,  overflowing  from  the  white  cliffs 
of  Albion,  and  sweeping  the  slave-trade  and  slavery 
from  the  face  of  the  terraqueous  globe."     He   pro 
ceeds : 

"  People  of  that  renowned  island  !  —  children  of  the  land  of 
our  forefathers  !  —  proceed,  proceed  in  this  glorious  career,  till 
the  whole  earth  shall  be  redeemed  from  the  greatest  curse  that 
ever  has  afflicted  the  human  race.  Proceed  until  millions  upon 
millions  of  your  brethren  of  the  human  race,  restored  to  the 
rights  with  which  they  were  endowed  by  your  and  their  Cre 
ator,  but  of  which  they  have  been  robbed  by  ruffians  of  their 
own  race,  shall  send  their  choral  shouts  of  redemption  to  the 
skies  in  blessings  upon  your  names.  0,  with  what  pungent 
mortification  and  shame  must  I  confess  that  in  the  transcend 
ent  glories  of  that  day  our  names  will  not  £a_as&o^ialed' with 
j^m^nSTay  lleaverTin  rnercy  grant  that  we  may  be  spared 
the  deeper  damnation  of  seeing  our  names  recorded,  not  among 
the  liberators,  but  with  the  oppressors  of  mankind  !  " 

After  inquiring  what  we  have  done  in  the  United 
States  to  support  "  the  principle  proclaimed  to  the 
world  as  that  which  was  to  be  the  vital  spark  of  our 
existence  as  a  community  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth/'  and  declaring  that  we  have  done  nothing,  he 
thus  enumerates  the  proceedings  which  disqualify  us 
from  presuming  to  share  in  the  festivities  and  unite  in 
the  songs  of  triumph  of  the  1st  of  August,  and  shows 
how  little  we  have  concurred  with  Great  Britain  in 
her  attempts  to  break  the  chain  of  slavery.  He  in 
quires  into  what  we  are  doing  : 

"  Are  we  not  suffering  our  own  hands  to  be  manacled,  and 
our  own  feet  to  be  fettered,  with  the  chains  of  slavery?  [is  it 
not  enough  to  be  told  that,  by  a  fraudulent  perversion  of  Ian- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  399 

guage  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  we  have  falsi 
fied  the  constitution  itself,  by  admitting  intoboth  the  legislative 
and  PTrrntiv^  drpnirtniftiiln  nf  ltTt"'JH  I'lTrfnrn't'nn  nyrr^vhrlminr; 
representation"  of  one  species  of  property,  to  ffie  exclusion  of 
all  other's,  and  that  the  odious  property  in  slaves  ? 

"Is  it  not  enough  that',  by  this  exclusive  privilege  of  prop 
erty  representation,  confined  to  one  section  of  the  country,  an 
irresistible  ascendency  in  the  action  of  the  general  government 
has  been  secured,  not  indeed  to  that  section,  but  to  an  oligar 
chy  of  slaveholders  in  that  section  —  to  the  cruel  oppression 
of  the  poor  in  that  same  section  itself?  Is  it  not  enough  that, 
by  the  operation  of  this  radical  iniquity  in  the  organization  of 
the  government,  an  immense  disproportion  of  all  offices,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  civil,  military,  naval,  executive,  and 
judicial,  are  held  by  slaveholders  ?  Have  we  not  seen  the 
sacred  right  of  petition  totally  suppressed  for  the  people  of 
the  free  states  during  a  succession  of  years,  and  is  it  not  yet 
inexorably  suppressed  ?  Have  we  not  seen,  for  the  last  twenty 
years,  the  constitution  and  solemn  treaties  with  foreign  nations 
trampled  on  by  cruel  oppression  and  lawless  imprisonment  of 
colored  mariners  in  the  Southern  States,  in  cold-blooded  defi 
ance  of  a  solemn  adjudication  by  a  Southern  judge  in  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  Union  ?  And  is  not  this  enough  ?  Have 
not  the  people  of  the  free  states  been  required  to  renounce  for 
their  citizens  the  right  of  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  jury  ;  and, 
to  coerce  that  base  surrender  of  the  only  practical  security  to 
all  personal  rights,  have  not  the  slave-breeders,  by  state  legis 
lation,  subjected  to  fine  and  imprisonment  the  colored  citizens 
of  the  free  states,  for  merely  coming  within  their  jurisdiction  ? 
Have  we  not  tamely  submitted  for  years  to  the  daily  violation 
of  the  freedom  of  the  post-office  and  of  the  press  by  a  com 
mittee  of  seal-breakers  ?  And  have  we  not  seen  a  sworn  Post 
master-general  formally  avow  that,  though  he  could  not  license 
this  cut-purse  protection  of  the  peculiar  institution,  the  per 
petrators  of  this  highway  robbery  must  justify  themselves  by 
the  plea  of  necessity  ?  And  has  the  pillory  or  the  penitentiary 
been  the  reward  of  that  Postmaster-general  ?  Have  we  riot 
seen  printing-presses  destroyed  ;  halls  erected  for  the  promo- 


400     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

tion  of  human  freedom  levelled  with  the  dust,  and  consumed 
by  fire ;  and  wanton,  unprovoked  murder  perpetrated  with 
impunity,  by  slave-mongers  ?  Have  we  not  seen  human 
beings,  made  in  the  likeness  of  God,  and  endowed  with  immor 
tal  souls,  burnt  at  the  stake,  not  for  their  offences,  but  for 
their  color  ?  Are  not  the  journals  of  our  Senate  disgraced  by 
resolutions  calling  for  war,  to  indemnify  the  slave-pirates  of 
the  Enterprise  and  the  Creole  for  the  self-emancipation  of 
their  slaves  ;  and  to  inflict  vengeance,  by  a  death  of  torture, 
upon  the  heroic  self-deliverance  of  Madison  Washington  ? 
Have  we  not  been  fifteen  years  plotting  rebellion  against  our 
neighbor  republic  of  Mexico,  for  abolishing  slavery  throughout 
all  her  provinces  ?  Have  we  not  aided  and  abetted  one  of  her 
provinces  in  insurrection  against  her  for  that  cause  ?  And 
have  we  not  invaded  openly,  and  sword  in  hand,  another  of 
her  provinces,  and  all  to  effect  her  dismemberment,  and  to  add 
ten  more  slave  states  to  our  confederacy  ?  Has  not  the  cry 
of  war  for  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  for  the  expansion  of  rei'n- 
stituted  slavery,  for.  the  robbery  of  priests,  and  the  plunder  of 
religious  establishments,  yet  subsided  ?  Have  the  pettifog 
ging,  hair-splitting,  nonsensical,  and  yet  inflammatory  bicker 
ings  about  the  right  of  search,  pandering  to  the  thirst  for 
revenge  in  France,  panting  for  war  to  prostrate  the  disputed 
title  of  her  king  —  has  the  sound  of  this  war-trumpet  yet  faded 
away  upon  our  ears  ?  Has  the  supreme  and  unparalleled 
absurdity  of  stipulating  by  treaty  to  keep  a  squadron  of  eighty 
guns  for  five  years  without  intermission  upon  the  coast  of 
Africa,  to  suppress  the  African  slave-trade,  and  at  the  same 
time  denying,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  the  right  of  that 
squadron  to  board  or  examine  any  slaver  all  but  sinking  under 
a  cargo  of  victims,  if  she  but  hoist  a  foreign  flag  —  has  this 
diplomatic  bone  been  yet  picked  clean  ?  Or  is  our  indirect 
participation  in  the  African  slave-trade  to  be  protected,  at  what 
ever  expense  of  blood  and  treasure  ?  Is  the  supreme  Execu 
tive  Chief  of  this  commonwealth  yet  to  speak  not  for  himself, 
but  for  her  whole  people,  and  pledge  them  to  shoulder  their 
muskets,  and  to  endorse  their  knapsacks,  against  the  fanatical, 
non-resistant  abolitionists,  whenever  the  overseers  may  please 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  401 

to  raise  the  bloody  flag  with  the  swindling  watch-word  of 
'  Union'?  0,  my  friends,  I  have  not  the  heart  to  join  in  the 
festivity  on  the  First  of  August  —  the  British  anniversary  of 
disenthralled  humanity  —  while  all  this,  and  infinitely  more 
that  I  could  tell,  but  that  I  would  spare  the  blushes  of  my 
country,  weigh  down  my  spirits  with  the  uncertainty,  sinking 
into  my  grave  as  I  am,  whether  she  is  doomed  to  be  num 
bered  among  the  first  liberators  or  the  last  oppressors  of  the 
race  of  immortal  man  ! 

"  Let  the  long-trodden-down  African,  restored  by  the  cheer 
ing  voice  and  Christian  hand  of  Britain  to  his  primitive  right 
and  condition  of  manhood,  clap  his  hands  and  shout  for  joy  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  First  of  August.  Let  the  lordly  Briton 
strip  off  much  of  his  pride  on  other  days  of  the  year,  and 
reserve  it  al]  for  the  pride  of  conscious  beneficence  on  this 
day.  What  lover  of  classical  learning  can  read  the  account  in 
Livy,  or  in  Plutarch,  of  the  restoration  to  freedom  of  the  Gre 
cian  cities  by  the  Roman  consul  Flaminius,  without  feeling 
his  bosom  heave,  and  his  blood  flow  cheerily  in  his  veins  ? 
The  heart  leaps  with  sympathy  when  we  read  that,  on  the  first 
proclamation  by  the  herald,  the  immense  assembled  multitude, 
in  the  tumult  of  astonishment  and  joy,  could  scarcely  believe 
their  own  ears,  and  made  him  repeat  the  proclamation,  and 
then  '  Tarn  ab  certo  jam  gaudio,  tantus  cum  clamor e,  plausus  est 
ortus,  totiesque  repetitus,  ut  facile  appararet  nihil  omnium  bono- 
rum  multitudini  gratius  quam  liber tatem  esse.  —  Then  rang  the 
welkin  with  long  and  redoubled  shouts  of  exultation,  clearly 
proving  that,  of  all  the  enjoyments  accessible  to  the  hearts  of 
men,  nothing  is  so  delightful  to  them  as  liberty.7  Upwards 
of  two  thousand  years  have  revolved  since  that  day,  and  the 
First  of  August  is  to  the  Briton  of  this  age  what  the  day  of 
the  proclamation  of  Flaminius  was  to  the  ancient  Roman. 
Yes !  let  them  celebrate  the  First  of  August  as  the  day  to 
them  of  deliverance  and  glory ;  and  leave  to  us  the  pleasant 
employment  of  commenting  upon  their  motives,  of  devising 
means  to  shelter  the  African  slaver  from  their  search,  and  of 
squandering  millions  to  support,  on  a  pestilential  coast,  a 
squadron  of  the  stripes  and  stars,  with  instructions  sooner  to 
26 


402     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

scuttle  their  ships  than  to  molest  the  pirate  slaver  who  shall 
make  his  flagstaff  the  herald  of  a  lie  ! " 

In  July,  1843,  the  Cincinnati  Astronomical  Society 
earnestly  solicited  Mr.  Adams  to  lay  the  corner-stone 
of  their  Observatory.  No  invitation  could  have  been 
more  coincident  with  the  prevailing  interest  of  his 
heart,  and  he  immediately  accepted  it,  notwithstand 
ing  his  advanced  age,  and  the  great  distance  which 
the  performance  of  the  duty  required  him  to  travel. 
Some  of  his  constituents  having  questioned  the  propri 
ety  of  this  acceptance,  and  expressed  doubts  whether 
the  duties  it  imposed  were  compatible  with  his  other 
public  obligations,  Mr.  Adams,  in  an  address  to  them, 
at  Dedham,  on  the  4th  of  July,  took  occasion  to  state 
that  the  encouragement  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  and 
of  all  good  literature,  is  expressly  enjoined  by  the 
constitution  of  Massachusetts.  The  patronage  and 
encouragement  of  them  is  therefore  one  of  the  most 
sacred  duties  of  the  people  of  that  state,  and  enjoined 
upon  them  and  their  children  as  a  part  of  their  duty 
to  G-od.  "  The  voices  of  your  forefathers,  founders 
of  your  social  compact,  calling  from  their  graves,  com 
mand  you  to  this  duty  ;  and  I  deem  it,  as  your  repre 
sentative,  a  tacit  and  standing  instruction  from  you  to 
perform,  as  far  as  may  be  my  ability,  that  part  of  your 
constitutional  duty  for  you.  It  is  in  this  sense  that, 
in  accepting  the  earnest  invitation  from  a  respectable 
and  learned  society,  in  a  far  distant  state  and  city  of 
the  Union,  to  unite  with  them  in  the  act  of  erecting 
an  edifice  for  the  observation  of  the  heavens,  and 
thereby  encouraging  the  science  of  astronomy,  I  am 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  403 

fulfilling  an  obligation  of  duty  to  you,  and  in  youi 
service."     The  nature  of  this  duty  he  thus  illustrates 

"  From  the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt  and  Alexander  of  Macedon, 
from  Julius  Caesar  to  the  Arabian  Caliphs  Haroun  al  Raschid, 
Almamon,  and  Almansor,  from  Alphonso  of  Castile  to  Nicholas, 
the  present  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  —  who,  at  the  expense 
of  one  million  of  rubles,  has  erected  at  Pulkova  the  most  per 
fect  and  best-appointed  observatory  in  the  world,  —  royal  and 
imperial  power  has  never  been  exercised  with  more  glory, 
never  more  remembered  with  the  applause  and  gratitude  of 
mankind,  than  when  extending  the  hand  of  patronage  and 
encouragement  to  the  science  of  astronomy.  You  have  nei 
ther  Caesar  nor  Czar,  Caliph,  Emperor,  nor  King,  to  monopolize 
this  glory  by  largesses  extracted  from  the  fruits  of  your  indus 
try.  The  founders  of  your  constitution  have  left  it  as  their 
dying  commandment  to  you,  to  achieve,  as  the  lawful  sover 
eigns  of  the  land,  this  resplendent  glory  to  yourselves  —  to 
patronize  and  encourage  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  all  good 
literature." 

Mr.  Adams  left  Quincy  for  Cincinnati  on  the  25th 
of  October,  and  returned  to  Washington  on  the  24th 
of  November.  At  Saratoga,  Rochester,  Buffalo,  he 
was  received  with  marked  attention  ;  and  in  every 
place  where  he  rested  assemblages  of  the  inhabitants 
took  occasion  to  evidence  their  respect  and  interest  in 
his  character  by  congratulatory  addresses,  and  wel 
comed  his  presence  by  every  token  of  civility  and 
regard.  At  Columbus  he  was  met  by  a  deputation 
from  Cincinnati,  and,  in  approaching  that  city,  he 
was  escorted  into  it  by  a  procession  and  cavalcade. 
No  demonstration  of  honor  and  gratitude  for  the  exer 
tion  he  had  made,  and  the  fatigues  he  had  undergone, 


404  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

for  their  gratification,  was  omitted.     His  whole  prog 
ress  was  an  ovation. 

In  the  presence  of  a  large  concourse  of  the  citizens 
of  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Adams  was  introduced  to  the  Astro 
nomical  Society  by  its  president,  Judge  Burnet,  who 
gave,  in  an  appropriate  address,  a  rapid  sketch  of  the 
history  of  his  life  and  his  public  services,  touching 
with  delicacy  and  judgment  on  the  trials  to  which 
his  political  course  had  been  subjected.  The  follow 
ing  tributes,  from  their  truth,  justice,  and  appropri 
ateness,  are  entitled  to  distinct  remembrance  : 

"  Being  a  son  of  one  of  the  framers  and  defenders  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  his  political  principles  were 
formed  in  the  school  of  the  sages  of  the  Revolution,  from 
whom  he  imbibed  the  spirit  of  liberty  while  he  was  yet  a  boy. 

"Having  been  brought  up  among  the  immediate  descend 
ants  of  the  Puritan  fathers,  whose  landing  in  Massachusetts 
in  the  winter  of  1620  gave  immortality  to  the  rock  of  Plymouth, 
his  moral  and  religious  impressions  were  derived  from  a  source 
of  the  most  rigid  purity  ;  and  his  manners  and  habits  were 
formed  in  a  community  where  ostentation  and  extravagance 
had  no  place.  In  this  fact  we  see  why  it  is  that  he  has  always 
been  distinguished  for  his  purity  of  motive,  simplicity  of  man 
ners,  and  republican  plainness  in  his  style  of  living  and  in  his 
intercourse  with  society.  To  the  same  causes  may  be  ascribed 
his  firmness,  his  directness  of  purpose,  and  his  unyielding 
adherence  to  personal  as  well  as  political  liberty.  You  have 
recently  seen  him  stand  as  unmoved  as  the  rock  of  Gibraltar, 
defending  the  right  of  petition,  and  the  constitutional  privi 
leges  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  assembled  in  Con 
gress,  though  fiercely  assailed  by  friends  and  by  foes. 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  during  the  whole  of  his  public 
life,  which  has  already  continued  more  than  half  a  century,  he 
never  connected  himself  with  a  political  party,  or  held  himself 


MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  405 

bound  to  support  or  oppose  any  measure  for  the  purpose  o* . 
advancing1  or  retarding  the  views  of  a  party  ;  but  he  has  held 
himself  free  at  all  times  to  pursue  the  course  which  duty 
pointed  out,  however  he  may  have  been  considered  by  some 
as  adhering  to  a  party.  This  fact  discloses  the  reason  why  he 
has  been  applauded  at  times,  and  at  other  times  censured,  by 
every  party  which  has  existed  under  the  government.  The 
truth  is  that,  while  the  American  people  have  been  divided 
into  two  great  political  sections,  each  contending  for  its  own 
aggrandizement,  Mr.  Adams  has  stood  between  them,  uninflu 
enced  by  either,  contending  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
nation.  His  life  has  been  in  some  respects  sui  generis ;  and  I 
venture  the  opinion  that,  generally,  when  his  course  has  dif 
fered  most  from  the  politicians  opposed  to  him,  it  has  tended 
most  to  the  advancement  of  the  public  good. 

"  As  a  proof  of  the  desire  Mr.  Adams  has  always  cherished 
for  the  advancement  of  science,  I  might  refer  to  his  annual 
message  to  Congress  in  December,  1825,  in  which  he  recom 
mended  the  establishment  of  a  National  University,  and  an 
Astronomical  Observatory,  and  referred  to  the  hundred  and 
thirty  of  those  '  light-houses  of  the  skies  '  existing  in  Europe, 
as  casting  a  reproach  on  our  country  for  its  unpardonable  neg 
ligence  on  that  important  subject.  The  manner  in  which  that 
recommendation  was  received  and  treated  can  never  be  forgot 
ten.  It  must  at  this  day  be  a  source  of  great  comfort  to  that 
devoted  friend  of  science  that  those  who  yet  survive  of  the 
highly-excited  party  which  attempted  to  cast  on  him  reproach 
and  ridicule  for  that  proposition,  and  especially  for  assimilat 
ing  those  establishments  to  light-houses  of  the  skies,  have 
recently  admitted  the  wisdom  of  his  advice  by  making  ample 
appropriations  to  accomplish  the  very  object  he  then  pro 
posed." 

The  oration  Mr.  Adams  delivered  on  that  occasion 
is,  perhaps,  the  most  extraordinary  of  his  literary 
efforts,  evidencing  his  comprehensive  grasp  of  the 
subject,  and  the  intensity  of  his  interest  in  it.  It 


406     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

embraces  an  outline  of  the  history  of  astronomy,  illus 
trated  by  an  elevated  and  excited  spirit  of  philosophy. 
Those  who  cultivated,  those  who  patronized,  and  those 
who  advanced  it,  are  celebrated,  and  the  events  of 
their  lives  and  the  nature  of  their  services  are  briefly 
related.  The  operations  of  the  mind  which  are  essen 
tial  to  its  progress  are  touched  upon.  The  intense 
labor  and  peculiar  intellectual  qualifications  incident  io 
and  required  for  its  successful  pursuit  are  intimated. 
Nor  are  the  inventors  of  those  optical  instruments, 
who  had  contributed  to  the  advancement  of  this  sci 
ence  beyond  all  previous  anticipation,  omitted  in  this 
extensive  survey  of  its  nature,  progress,  and  history. 

After  celebrating  "the  gigantic  energies  and  more 
than  heroic  labors  of  Copernicus,  Tycho  Brahe,  Kep 
ler,  and  Galileo/'  he  pronounced  Newton  "the  con 
summation  of  them  all." 

"It  was  his  good  fortune,"  observed  Mr.  Adams, 
"  to  be  born  and  to  live  in  a  country  where  there  was  no 
college  of  cardinals  to  cast  him  into  prison,  and  doom 
him  to  spend  his  days  in  repeating  the  seven  peniten 
tial  psalrns,  for  shedding  light  upon  the  world,  and 
publishing  mathematical  truths.  Newton  was  not  per 
secuted  by  the  dull  and  ignorant  instruments  of  politi 
cal  or  ecclesiastical  power.  He  lived  in  honor  among 
his  countrymen ;  was  a  member  of  one  Parliament, 
received  the  dignity  of  knighthood,  held  for  many 
years  a  lucrative  office,  and  at  his  decease  was  interred 
in  solemn  state  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  a  monu 
ment  records  his  services  to  mankind,  among  the  sep 
ulchres  of  the  British  kings. 


MEMOIR    OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  407 

"  From  the  days  of  Newton  down  to  the  present 
hour,  the  science  of  astronomy  has  been  cultivated, 
with  daily  deepening  interest,  by  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  Europe  —  by  England,  France,  Prussia, 
Sweden,  several  of  the  German  and  Italian  states,  and, 
above  all,  by  Kussia,  whose  present  sovereign  has  made 
the  pursuit  of  knowledge  a  truly  imperial  virtue/' 

After  speaking  of  the  patronage  extended  to  this 
science  by  the  nations  and  sovereigns  of  Europe,  he 
terminates  his  developments  with  this  stirring  appeal 
to  his  own  countrymen  : 

"  But  what,  in  the  mean  time,  have  we  been  doing  ?  While 
our  fathers  were  colonists  of  England  we  had  no  distinctive 
political  or  literary  character.  The  white  cliffs  of  Albion  cov 
ered  the  soil  of  our  nativity,  though  another  hemisphere  first 
opened  our  eyes  on  the  light  of  day,  and  oceans  rolled  between 
us  and  them.  We  were  Britons  born,  and  we  claimed  to  be 
the  countrymen  of  Chaucer  and  Shakspeare,  Milton  and  New 
ton,  Sidney  and  Locke,  Arthur  and  Alfred,  as  well  as  of 
Edward  the  Black  Prince,  Harry  of  Monmouth,  and  Elizabeth. 
But  when  our  fathers  abjured  the  name  of  Britons,  and 
'  assumed  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  the  separate  and 
equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God 
entitled  them/  they  tacitly  contracted  the  engagement  for 
themselves,  and  above  all  for  their  posterity,  to  contribute,  in 
their  corporate  and  national  capacity,  their  full  share,  ay,  and 
more  than  their  full  share,  of  the  virtues  that  elevate  and  of 
the  graces  that  adorn  the  character  of  civilized  man.  They 
announced  themselves  as  reformers  of  the  institution  of  civil 
society.  They  spoke  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  in  the  name 
of  nature's  God  ;  and  by  that  sacred  adjuration  they  pledged 
us,  their  children,  to  labor  with  united  and  concerted  energy, 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  to  purge  the  earth  of  all  slavery ; 
to  restore  the  race  of  man  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  those 


408     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

rights  which  the  God  of  nature  had  bestowed  upon  him  at  his 
birth ;  to  disenthrall  his  limbs  from  chains,  to  break  the  fet 
ters  from  his  feet  and  the  manacles  from  his  hands,  and  set 
him  free  for  the  use  of  all  his  physical  powers  for  the  improve 
ment  of  his  own  condition.  The  God  in  whose  name  they 
spoke  had  taught  them,  in  the  revelation  of  the  Gospel,  that 
the  only  way  in  which  man  can  discharge  his  duty  to  Him  is 
by  loving  his  neighbor  as  himself,  and  doing  with  him  as  he 
would  be  done  by  ;  respecting  his  rights  while  enjoying  hie 
own,  and  applying  all  his  emancipated  powers  of  body  and  of 
mind  to  self-improvement  and  the  improvement  of  his  race." 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 

REPORT     ON    THE    RESOLVES    OF    THE     LEGISLATURE     OF     MASSACHUSETTS 
PROPOSING    AN    AMENDMENT    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE    UNITED 

STATES    IN    EFFECT    TO    ABOLISH    A    REPRESENTATION    FOR    SLAVES. 

FOURTH     REPORT     ON     JAMES     SMITHSON'S    BEQUEST. INFLUENCE    OF 

MR.  ADAMS  ON  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  OBSERVA 
TORY  AND  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. GENERAL  JACKSON'S 

CHARGE  THAT  THE  RIO  GRANDE  MIGHT  HAVE  BEE-N  OBTAINED,  UNDER 
THE  SPANISH  TREATY,  AS  A  BOUNDARY  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
REFUTED. ADDRESS  TO  HIS  CONSTITUENTS  AT  WEYMOUTH. RE 
MARKS  ON  THE  RETROCESSION  OF  ALEXANDRIA  TO  VIRGINIA. HIS 

PARALYSIS. RECEPTION     BY     THE     HOUSE     OF     REPRESENTATIVES. 

EIS   DEATH. FUNERAL   HONORS. TRIBUTE   TO    HIS   MEMORY. 

IN  April,  1844,  certain  resolves  of  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  proposing  to  Congress  to  recommend, 
according  to  the  provisions  of  the  fifth  article  of  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States,  an  amendment  to 
the  said  constitution,  in  effect  abolishing  the  repre 
sentation  for  slaves,  being  under  consideration,  and  a 
report  adverse  to  such  amendment  having  been  made 
by  a  majority  of  the  committee,  Mr.  Adams,  and  Mr. 
Giddings,  of  Ohio,  being  a  minority,  united  in  a  report, 
in  which,  concurring  in  the  opinion  of  the  majority  so  far 
as  to  believe  that  it  was  not,  at  that  time,  expedient 
to  recommend  the  amendment  proposed  by  the  Legis 
lature  of  Massachusetts,  they  were  compelled  to  dissent 
from  the  views  and  the  reasons  which  had  actuated 
them  in  coming  to  that  conclusion. 

(409) 


410     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

"The  subscribers  are  under  a  deep  and  solemn  conviction 
that  the  provision  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
as  it  has  been  and  yet  is  construed,  and  which  the  resolves  of 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  propose  to  discard  and  erase 
therefrom,  is  repugnant  to  the  first  and  vital  principles  of 
republican  popular  representation ;  to  the  self-evident  truths 
proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  to  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  itself;  to 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  constitutions  of  almost  all  the  states 
in  the  Union  ;  to  the  liberties  of  the  whole  people  of  all  the 
free  states,  and  of  all  that  portion  of  the  people  of  the  states 
where  domestic  slavery  is  established,  other  than  owners  of 
the  slaves  themselves ;  that  this  is  its  essential  and  unextin- 
guishable  character  in  principle,  and  that  its  fruits,  in  its  prac 
tical  operation  upon  the  government  of  the  land,  as  felt 
with  daily  increasing  aggravation  by  the  people,  correspond 
with  that  character.  To  place  these  truths  in  the  clearest 
light  of  demonstration,  and  beyond  the  reach  of  contradiction, 
the  subscribers  proceed,  in  the  order  of  these  averments,  to 
adduce  the  facts  and  the  arguments  by  which  they  will  be 
maintained." 

The  report  then  proceeds,  in  reply  to  the  reasoning 
of  the  majority  of  the  committee,  to  maintain  that 
"  the  principle  of  republican  popular  representation 
is  that  the  terms  of  representative  and  constituent  are 
correlative  ;  "  that  "  democracy  admits  no  representa 
tion  of  property;"  that  "the  slave  representation  is 
repugnant  to  the  self-evident  truths  proclaimed  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence/'  The  truths  in  that 
Declaration  the  report  illustrates  from  history,  from 
Scripture,  and  from  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
who  was  aware  that  wars,  and  their  attendant,  slavery, 
would  continue  among  men,  and  that  the  destiny  of 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  411 

his  Gospel  itself  was  often  to  be  indebted  for  its  pro 
gressive  advancement  to  war. 

" '  I  came  not/  said  he,  '  to  send  peace  upon  earth,  but  a 
sword  ; '  meaning,  not  that  this  was  the  object  of  his  mission, 
but  that,  in  the  purposes  of  the  Divine  nature,  war  itself 
should  be  made  instrumental  to  promote  the  final  consumma 
tion  of  universal  peace.  Slavery  has  not  ceased  upon  the 
earth ;  but  the  impression  upon  the  human  heart  and  mind 
that  slavery  is  a  wrong,  —  a  crime  against  the  laws  of  nature 
and  of  nature's  God,  —  has  been  deepening  and  widening,  till 
it  may  now  be  pronounced  universal  upon  every  soul  in  Chris 
tendom  not  warped  by  personal  interest,  or  tainted  with  dis 
belief  in  Christianity.  The  owner  of  ten  slaves  believes  that 
slavery  is  not  an  evil.  The  owner  of  a  hundred  believes  it  a 
blessing.  The  philosophical  infidel  has  no  faith  in  Hebrew 
prophecies,  or  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus.  He  says  in  his  heart, 
though  he  will  not  tell  you  to  your  face,  that  the  proclamation 
of  the  natural  equality  of  mankind,  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  is  untrue  ;  that  the  African  race  are  physically,  mor 
ally,  and  intellectually,  inferior  to  the  white  European  man ; 
that  they  are  not  of  one  blood,  nor  descendants  of  the  same 
stock ;  that  the  African  is  born  to  be  a  slave,  and  the  white 
man  to  be  his  master.  The  worshipper  of  mammon  and  the 
philosophical  atheist  hold  no  communion  with  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  unalienable  rights.  But,  with  these 
exceptions,  poll  the  whole  mass  of  Christian  men,  of  every 
name,  sect,  or  denomination,  throughout  the  globe,  and  you 
will  not  hear  a  solitary  voice  deny  that  slavery  is  a  wrong,  a 
crime,  and  a  curse." 

This  report  then  proceeds  to  maintain  that  the  rep 
resentation  of  slaves  as  persons,  conferred  not  upon 
themselves  but  their  owners,  is  repugnant  to  the 
self-evident  truth  proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of 


412  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

Independence,  and  equally  repugnant  both  to  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  the  constitution  of  almost  every  state  of  the 
Union ;  that  it  is  deceptive,  and  inconsistent  with 
the  principle  of  popular  representation  ;  —  all  which 
is  supported  by  reference  to  the  writings  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  a  slaveholder,  concerning  the  relations  of 
master  and  slave.  It  is  shown  how,  by  the  effect  of 
that  article  in  the  constitution,  all  political  power  in 
the  states  is  absorbed  and  engrossed  by  the  owners  of 
slaves,  and  the  cunning  by  which  this  has  been  effected 
is  explained.  The  report  then  enters  into  the  history 
of  slavery,  declaring  that  ' '  the  resolves  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  Massachusetts  speak  the  unanimous  opinions 
and  sentiments  of  the  people  —  unanimous,  with  the 
exception  of  the  sordid  souls  linked  to  the  causejo/ 
slavery  by  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  patronage." 
In  June,  1844,  Mr.  Adams,  as  chairman  of  a  select 
committee  on  the  Smithsonian  fund,  reported  a  bill, 
in  which  he  referred  to  its  actual  state,  and  proposed 
measures  tending  to  give  immediate  operation  to  that 
bequest.  In  support  of  its  provisions,  he  stated  that, 
on  the  first  day  of  September,  1838,  there  had  been 
deposited  in  the  mint  of  the  United  States,  in  gold, 
half  a  million  of  dollars, —  the  full  amount  of  the 
bequest  of  Mr.  Smithson,  —  which,  on  the  same  day, 
under  the  authority  of  an  act  of  Congress,  and  with 
the  approbation  of  the  President,  had  been  vested  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  bonds  of  the  States 
of  Arkansas,  Michigan,  and  Illinois  ;  that  the  pay 
ment  of  the  interest  on  these  bonds  had  been  almost 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  413 

entirely  neglected  ;  that  the  principal  and  arrears  of 
interest  then  accumulating  amounted  to  upwards  of  six 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousand  dollars ;  that  the 
payment  of  these  bonds  was  remote,  and  unavailable 
by  Congress  for  application  to  the  objects  of  this 
bequest. 

In  accepting  this  legacy,  the  faith  of  the  United 
States  had  been  pledged  that  all  money  received  from 
it  should  be  applied  to  the  humane  and  generous  pur 
pose  prescribed  by  the  testator ;  and  he  contended 
that,  for  the  redemption  of  this  pledge,  it  was  indis 
pensably  requisite  that  the  funds  thus  locked  up  in  the 
treasury,  in  bonds  of  these  states,  with  the  accruing 
and  suspended  interest  thereon,  should  be  made  avail 
able  for  the  disposal  of  Congress,  to  enable  them  to 
execute  the  sacred  trust  they  had  assumed. 

The  committee  then  reported  a  bill  providing,  in 
effect,  for  the  assumption  by  Congress  of  the  whole 
sum  and  interest,  as  a  loan  to  the  United  States, 
invested  in  their  stock,  bearing  an  annual  interest  of 
six  per  cent.,  payable  half-yearly,  and  redeemable  at 
the  pleasure  of  Congress  by  the  substitution  of  other 
funds  of  equal  value.  In  connection  with  this  pur 
pose  they  reported  a  bill  making  appropriations  to 
enable  Congress  to  proceed  immediately  to  the  exe 
cution  of  the  trust  committed  to  them  by  the  testator, 
and  for  the  fulfilment  of  which  the  faith  of  the  nation 
had  been  pledged. 

In  specifying  the  objects  to  which  it  should  be 
applied,  that  of  the  establishment  of  an  Astronomical 
Observatory  was  not  omitted.  This  recommendation 


414     MEMOIR  OP  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

decided  the  fate  of  the  bill ;  for  there  was  no  purpose 
on  which  the  predominating  party  were  more  fixed 
than  to  prevent  the  gratification  of  Mr.  Adams  in  this 
well-known  cherished  wish  of  his  heart. 

In  October,  1823,  Mr.  Adams,  being  then  Secretary 
of  State,  had  addressed  a  letter  to  a  member  of  the 
corporation  of  Harvard  University,  urging  the  erection 
of  an  Astronomical  Observatory  in  connection  with  that 
institution,  and  tendering  a  subscription,  on  his  own 
account,  of  one  thousand  dollars,  on  condition  a  requi 
site  sum  should  be  raised,  for  that  purpose,  within 
two  years.  His  proposal  not  meeting  correspondent 
spirit  among  the  friends  of  science  at  that  time,  in 
October,  1825,  he  renewed  the  offer,  on  the  same 
condition  and  limitation.  In  both  cases  a  conceal 
ment  of  his  name  was  made  imperative.* 

The  establishment  of  an  Astronomical  Observatory 
was  recommended  in  his  first  message  to  Congress,  as 
President  of  the  United  States  ;  but  the  proposition 
fell  on  a  political  soil  glowing  with  a  red  heat,  enkin 
dled  by  disappointed  ambition.  Opposition  to  the 
design  became  identified  with  party  spirit,  and  to 
defeat  it  no  language  of  contempt  or  of  ridicule  was 
omitted  by  the  partisans  of  General  Jackson.  In 
every  appropriation  which  it  was  apprehended  might 
be  converted  to  its  accomplishment,  the  restriction 
"and  to  no  other"  was  carefully  inserted.  In  the 
second  section  of  an  act  passed  on  the  10th  of  July, 
1832,  providing  for  the  survey  of  the  coasts  of  the 
United  States,  the  following  limitation  was  inserted  : 

*Quincy's  History  of  Harvard  University,  vol.  n.,  p.  567. 


MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS     415 

"  Provided  that  nothing  in  this  act,  or  in  the  act  hereby 
revived,  shall  be  construed  to  authorize  the  construction 
or  maintenance  of  a  permanent  Astronomical  Observa 
tory."  Yet,  at  the  time  of  passing  this  act,  it  was 
well  understood  that  the  appropriation  it  contained 
was  to  be  applied  to  that  object ;  and  subsequently,  in 
direct  defiance  of  this  prohibition,  Congress  permit 
ted  that  and  other  appropriations  to  be  applied  to  the 
erection  of  an  Astronomical  Observatory  in  the  city  of 
Washington,  to  which  annual  appropriations  were  suc 
cessively  granted  in  the  bill  providing  for  the  navy 
department ;  the  authors  of  the  proviso  being  aware 
of  the  uses  to  which  the  fund  would  be  applied,  but 
causing  its  insertion  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  its 
erection  from  being  attributed  to  the  influence  of  Mr. 
Adams.  To  such  disreputable  subterfuges  party  spirit 
can  condescend,  to  gratify  malignity,  or  to  obscure 
merit  from  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  to  the  power 
of  which  it  is  itself  compelled  to  yield. 

Nothing  was  effectually  done,  on  the  subject  of  the 
Smithsonian  fund,  until  the  22d  of  April,  1846,  when 
a  bill  to  carry  into  effect  that  bequest  was  reported  by 
Mr.  Owen,  of  Indiana,  and  earnestly  supported  by 
him  and  others.  In  its  important  general  features 
it  coincided  with  the  views  of  Mr.  Adams,  except 
only  that  it  made  no  provision  for  an  Astronomical 
Observatory.  After  various  amendments,  it  received 
the  sanction  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  Mr.  Adams 
voting  in  its  favor.  On  the  10th  of  August,  1846,  it 
received  the  signature  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 


416  MEMOIR     OP    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

During  the  debate  upon  this  bill,  its  supporters 
acknowledged  { { that  Mr.  Adams  had  labored  in  this 
good  cause  with  more  zeal  and  perseverance  than  any 
other  man/' 

In  the  course  of  the  same  debate  it  was  said  by  one 
member  that,  "  inasmuch  as  the  views  of  Mr.  Adams 
had  been  carried  out  in  respect  of  an  Astronomical 
Observatory,  by  the  government,  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,"  —  and  by  another,  that,  "as  building 
light-houses  in  the  skies  had  grown  into  popular 
favor,"  —  it  was  hoped  he  would  find  no  difficulty  in 
giving  his  vote  for  the  bill.  On  which  Mr.  Adams 
observed,  that  "  he  was  very  glad  to  hear  that  the 
'  building  light-houses  in  the  skies  had  grown  into  pop 
ular  favor/  The  appropriation  for  this  Astronomical 
Observatory  had  been  clandestinely  smuggled  into  the 
law,  under  the  head  of  a  depot  for  charts,  when,  a 
short  time  before,  a  provision  had  been  inserted  in  a 
bill  passed  that  no  appropriation  should  be  applied  to 
an  Astronomical  Observatory.  He  claimed  no  merit 
for  the  erection  of  an  Astronomical  Observatory,  but, 
in  the  course  of  his  whole  life,  no  conferring  of  honor, 
of  interest,  or  of  office,  had  given  him  more  delight 
than  the  belief  that  he  had  contributed,  in  some  small 
degree,  to  produce  these  Astronomical  Observatories 
both  here  and  elsewhere.*  He  no  longer  wished  any 
portion  of  the  Smithsonian  fund  to  be  applied  to  an 
Astronomical  Observatory." 

Notwithstanding  this  disclaimer,  the  four  reports  of 
Mr.  Adams,  on  the  Smithsonian  fund,  in  1836,  1840, 

*  Congressional  Globe,  vol  xv.,  p.  738. 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  417 

1842,  and  1844,  which  were  neither  coincident  with 
the  views  nor  within  the  comprehension  of  his  oppo 
nents,  will  remain  imperishable  monuments  of  the  ex 
tent  and  elevation  of  his  mind  on  this  subject.  When 
the  continued  and  strenuous  exertions  with  which  Mr. 
Adams  opposed,  at  every  step,  the  efforts  to  con 
vert  that  fund  to  projects  of  personal  interest  or 
ambition  are  appreciated,  it  will  be  evident  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  owe  to  him  what 
ever  benefit  may  result  from  the  munificence  of 
James  Smithson.  History  will  be  just  to  his  mem 
ory,  and  will  not  fail  to  record  his  early  interest 
and  strenuous  zeal  for  the  advancement  of  astro 
nomical  science,  and  the  influence  his  eloquence  and 
untiring  perseverance,  in  illustrating  its  importance 
with  an  unsurpassed  array  of  appropriate  learning, 
exerted  on  the  public  mind  in  the  United  States, 
not  only  in  effecting  the  establishment  of  other  Astro 
nomical  Observatories,  but  absolutely  compelling  party 
spirit,  notwithstanding  its  open,  bitter  animosity,  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  that  Observatory  which  now 
bears  the  name  of  "  National." 

In  February,  1843,  Andrew  Jackson  addressed  a 
letter  to  Aaron  Vail  Brown,  a  member  of  Congress, 
strongly  recommending  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and 
giving  his  reasons  for  that  measure,  which  he  com 
menced  by  stating  the  following  facts  : 

"  Soon  after  my  election,  in  1829,  it  was  made  known  to  me 

by  Mr.  Erwin,  formerly  our  minister  at  the  court  of  Madrid, 

that  whilst  at  that  court  he  had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  treaty 

with  Spain  for  the  cession  of  the  Floridas,  and  the  settlement 

27 


418  MEMOIR     OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS. 

of  the  boundary  of  Louisiana,  fixing  the  westerr  limit  of  the 
latter  at  the  Rio  Grande,  agreeably  to  the  understanding  of 
France  ;  that  he  had  written  home  to  our  government  for 
power  to  complete  and  sign  this  negotiation  ;  but  that,  instead 
of  receiving  such  authority,  the  negotiation  was  taken  out  of 
his  hands,  and  transferred  to  Washington,  and  a  new  treaty 
was  there  concluded,  by  which  the  Sabine,  and  not  the  Rio 
Grande,  was  recognized  and  established  as  the  boundary  of 
Louisiana.  Finding  that  these  statements  were  true,  and  that 
our  government  did  really  give  up  that  important  territory, 
when  it  was  at  its  option  to  retain  it,  I  was  filled  with  astonish 
ment.  The  right  to  the  territory  was  obtained  from  France, 
Spain  stood  ready  to  acknowledge  it  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
yet  the  authority  asked  by  our  minister  to  insert  the  true 
boundary  was  not  only  withheld,  but,  in  lieu  of  it,  a  limit  was 
adopted  which  stripped  us  of  the  whole  vast  country  lying 
between  the  two  rivers." 

The  letter  containing  this  statement  Aaron  Vail 
Brown  kept  concealed  from  the  public  until  March, 
1844,  when  he  gave  it  publicity  to  counteract  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Webster  against  the  annexation  of  Texas  to 
the  United  States.  This  statement  of  Andrew  Jack 
son  having  thus  been  brought  to  the  knowledge  of 
Mr.  Adams,  he  took  occasion,  on  the  7th  of  October 
in  that  year,  in  an  address  to  a  political  society  of 
young  men  in  Boston,  to  contradict  and  expose  it  in 
the  following  terms  : 

"  I  have  read  the  whole  of  this  letter  to  you,  for  I  intend  to 
prolong  its  existence  for  the  benefit  of  posterity."  [Aftei 
reading  the  above  extract  from  the  letter  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
Mr.  Adams  proceeds.]  "  He  was  filled  with  astonishment, 
fellow-citizens !  I  am  repeating  to  you  the  words  of  a  man 
who  has  been  eight  years  President  of  the  United  States ; 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  419 

words  deliberately  written,  and  published  to  the  world  more 
than  a  year  after  they  were  written  ;  words  importing  a  state 
ment  of  his  conduct  in  his  office  as  chief  magistrate  of  this 
Union ;  words  impeaching  of  treason  the  government  of  his 
predecessor,  James  Monroe,  arid  in  an  especial  mariner,  though 
without  daring  to  name  him,  the  Secretary  of  State, —  a  gov 
ernment  to  which  he  (Andrew  Jackson)  was  under  deep  obli 
gations  of  gratitude. 

"  In  what  language  of  composure  or  of  decency  can  I  say 
to  you  that  there  is  in  this  bitter  and  venomous  charge  not 
one  single  word  of  truth ;  that  it  is  from  beginning  to  end 
grossly,  glaringly,  wilfully  false?  —  false  even  in  the  name  of 
the  man  from  whom  he  pretends  to  have  derived  his  informa 
tion.  There  never  was  a  minister  of  the  United  States  in 
Spain  by  the  name  of  Erwin.  The  name  of  the  man  who  went 
to  him  on  this  honorable  errand,  soon  after  his  election  in  1829, 
was  George  W.  Erving,  of  whom  and  of  whose  revelations  I 
shall  also  have  something  to  say.  I  do  not  charge  this  distor 
tion  of  the  name  as  wilfully  made  ;  but  it  shows  how  care 
lessly  and  loosely  all  his  relations  and  intercourse  with  him 
hung  upon  his  memory,  and  how  little  he  cared  for  the  man. 

"  The  blunder  of  the  name,  however,  is  in  itself  a  matter  of 
little  moment.  Mr.  George  W.  Erving  never  did  make  to 
Mr.  Jackson  any  such  communication  as  he  pretends  to  have 
found  true,  and  to  have  filled  him  with  astonishment.  Mr. 
Erving  never  did  pretend,  nor  will  he  dare  to  affirm,  that  he 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  treaty  with  Spain  for  the  cession 
of  the  Floridas,  and  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  of  Lou 
isiana,  fixing  the  western  limit  at  the  Rio  Grande.  The  charge, 
therefore,  that  our  government  did  really  give  up  that  import 
ant  territory,  when  it  was  at  its  option  to  retain  it,  is  purely 
and  unqualifiedly  untrue  ;  and  I  now  charge  that  it  was  known 
by  Mr.  Brown  to  be  so  when  he  published  General  Jackson's 
letter ;  for,  in  the  postscript  to  Jackson's  letter,  he  says  '  the 
papers  furnished  by  Mr.  Erwin,  to  which  he  had  referred  in  it, 
could  be  placed  in  Mr.  Brown's  possession,  if  desired.' 

"They  were  accordingly  placed  in  Mr.  Brown's  possession, 
who,  when  he  published  Jackson's  letter  to  the  Globe,  alluding 


420  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

to  this  passage  asserting  that  Erving  had  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  treaty  with  Spain,  fixing  the  western  limit  at  the  Rio 
Grande,  otherwise  called  the  Rio  del  Norte,  subjoined  the  fol 
lowing  note  :  '  That  this  boundary  could  have  been  obtained 
was  doubtless  the  belief  of  our  minister ;  but  the  offer  of  the 
Spanish  government  was  probably  to  the  Colorado — certainly  a 
line  far  west  of  the  Sabine.' 

"  This  is  the  note  of  Aaron  Vail  Brown,  and  my  fellow-citi 
zens  will  please  to  observe, — 

"  First,  That  it  blows  to  atoms  the  whole  statement  of  An 
drew  Jackson  that  Erving  had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  treaty 
by  which  our  western  bounds  upon  the  Spanish  possessions 
should  be  at  the  Rio  Grande  ;  and,  of  course,  grinds  to  impal 
pable  powder  his  charge  that  our  government  did  give  up  that 
important  territory  when  it  was  at  its  option  to  retain  it. 

"  Secondly,  That  this  note  of  Aaron  Vail  Brown,  while  it  so 
effectually  demolishes  Jackson's  fable  of  Erving's  treaty  with 
Spain  for  the  boundary  of  the  Rio  del  Norte,  and  his  libellous 
charge  against  our  government  fpr  surrendering  the  territory 
which  they  had  the  option  to  retain,  is,  with  this  exception, 
as  wide  and  as  wilful  a  departure  from  the  truth  as  the  cal 
umny  of  Jackson  itself,  which  it  indirectly  contradicts." 

Mr.  Adams  then  enters  into  a  lucid  and  elaborate 
statement  of  Erving's  connection  with  this  negotia 
tion  with  the  Spanish  government,  with  minute  and 
important  illustrations,  highly  interesting  and  con 
clusive  ;  severely  animadverting  upon  the  conduct  of 
General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Brown.  He  says  : 

"The  object  of  the  publication  of  that  letter  of  Andrew 
Jackson  was  to  trump  up  a  shadow  of  argument  for  a  pre 
tended  reannexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States,  by  a  fabu 
lous  pretension  that  it  had  been  treacherously  surrendered  to 
Spain,  in  the  Florida  treaty  of  1819,  by  our  government, — 
meaning  thereby  the  Secretary  of  State  of  that  day,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  —  in  return  for  greater  obligations  than  any 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  421 

one  public  servant  of  this  nation  was  ever  indebted  for  to 
another.  The  argument  for  the  annexation,  or  reannexation, 
of  Texas  is  as  gross  an  imposture  as  ever  was  palmed  upon 
the  credulity  of  an  honest  people. " 

In  conclusion  Mr.  Adams  addresses  in  a  serious 
and  exciting  strain  of  eloquence  the  young  men  of 
Boston  ;  and,  after  recapitulating  part  of  an  oration 
which  he  delivered  on  the  4th  of  July,  1793,  before 
their  fathers  and  forefathers,  in  that  city,  he  closes 
thus : 

"  Young  men  of  Boston,  the  generations  of  men  to  whom 
fifty-one  years  bygone  I  gave  this  solemn  pledge  have  passed 
entirely  away.  They  in  whose  name  I  gave  it  are,  like  him 
who  addresses  you,  dropping  into  the  grave.  But  they  have 
redeemed  their  and  my  pledge.  They  were  your  fathers,  and 
they  have  maintained  the  freedom  transmitted  to  them  by  their 
sires  of  the  war  of  independence.  They  have  transmitted 
that  freedom  to  you  ;  and  upon  you  now  devolves  the  duty  of 
transmitting  it  unimpaired  to  your  posterity.  /Your  trial  is 
approaching.  The  spirit  of  freedom  and  the  spirit  of  slavery 
are  drawing  together  for  the  deadly  conflict  of  arms,  j  The 
annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union  is  the  blast  of  a  trumpet  for 
a  foreign,  civil,  servile,  and  Indian  war,  of  which  the  govern 
ment  of  your  country,  fallen  into  faithless  hands,  have  already 
twice  given  the  signal :  first  by  a  shameless  treaty,  rejected 
by  a  virtuous  Senate ;  and  again  by  the  glove  of  defiance  hurled 
by  the  apostle  of  nullification  at  the  avowed  policy  of  the 
British  empire  peacefully  to  promote  the  extinction  of  slavery 
throughout  the  world.  £Young  men  of  Boston,  burnish  your 
armor  —  prepare  for  the  conflict]}  and  I  say  to  you,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  Galgacus  to  the  ancient  Britons,  '  Think  of  youf 
forefathers  !  think  of  your  posterity  ! '  "  * 

On  the  30th  of  the  same  month  Mr.  Adams  deliv 

*  JVt'Zes'  National  Register,  Second  Series,  vol'.  xvn.,  pp.  105—111. 


422     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

ered  to  his  constituents  at  Weymouth  an  address 
equally  elaborate,  comprehensive,  and  historical,  in  a 
like  fervid  and  characteristic  spirit,*  which  thus  con 
cludes  : 

"  Texas  and  slavery  are  interwoven  in  every  banner  float 
ing  on  the  Democratic  breeze.  [' Freedom  or  death*  should  be 
inscribed  on  ours.  A  war  for  slavery  !  Can  you  enlist  under 
such  a  standard?  May  the  Ruler  of  the  universe  preserve 
you  from  such  degradation  !  '/Freedom  !  Peace  1  Union  !  '  be 
this  the  watchword  of  your  camp  ;  and  if  Ate,  hot  from  hell, 
will  corne  and  cry  'Havoc  ! '  fight  —  fight  and  conquer,  under 
the  banner  of  universal  freedom.77 

In  February,  1845,  our  title  to  Oregon  being  the 
subject  of  debate  in  Congress,  Mr.  Adams  joined  'in 
it,  displaying  his  full  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and 
declaring  that  it  was  time  to  give  notice  to  Great 
Britain  that  the  affair  must  be  settled.  He  was  desir 
ous  as  any  man  to  bring  this  subject  to  an  issue,  but 
he  did  not  wish  to  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  this 
matter  before  the  world  until  we  could  show  that  we 
had  the  best  of  the  argument.  He  wished  to  have 
the  reasons  given  to  the  world  for  our  taking  posses 
sion  of  seven  degrees  of  latitude,  and  perhaps  more  ; 
and  whenever  we  took  it,  too,  he  hoped  we  should 
have  it  defined  geographically,  defined  politically,  and, 
more  than  all  the  rest,  defined  morally  ;  and  then,  if 
we  came  to  question  with  Great  Britain,  we  should 
say,  "Come  on,  Macduff !  "  In  answer  to  the  in 
quiry  who  had  been  the  means  of  giving"  this  coun 
try  a  title  to  Oregon,  Mr.  Adams  answered,  it  was  a 

*AiZes'  National  Register,  Second  Series,  vol.  *vii.,  pp.  154 — 159. 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  423 

citizen  of  Massachusetts  that  discovered  the  Columbia 
River  ;  and  that  he  (Mr.  Adams)  had  the  credit  of 
inserting  the  clause  in  the  treaty  on  which  our  right 
was  based.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  attacks  which 
had  been  made  upon  him,  the  fact  would  have  gone 
with  him  to  the  grave. 

In  February,  1845,  in  a  speech  on  the  army  bill, 
he  treated  ironically  the  spirit  of  conquest  then  mani 
festing  itself  towards  Mexico,  Oregon,  and  California. 
He  said,  at  some  future  day  we  might  hear  the  Speaker 
not  only  announce  on  this  floor  "  the  gentleman  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains,"  or  "the  gentleman  from  the 
Pacific,"  or  "  the  gentleman  from  Patagonia,"  but 
"  the  gentleman  from  the  North  Pole,"  and  also  "  the 
gentleman  from  the  South  Pole  ;  "  and  the  poor  orig 
inal  thirteen  states  would  dwindle  into  comparative 
insignificance  as  parts  of  this  mighty  republic. 

In  November,  1845,  in  answer  to  a  letter  soliciting 
his  opinion  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  of  Con 
gress  retroceding  Alexandria  to  Virginia,  Mr.  Adams 
replied :  "I  have  no  hesitation  to  say  I  hold  that  act 
unconstitutional  and  void.  How  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  would  consider  it  I  cannot  under 
take  to  judge,  nor  how  they  would  carry  it  into  execu 
tion,  should  they  determine  the  act  unconstitutional. 
The  constitution  of  the  United  States  <  Stat  magna 
nominis  umbra.'  ! 

In  the  great  debate  on  the  Oregon  question,  which 
commenced  in  January,  1846,  the  intellectual  power 
of  Mr.  Adams,  and  the  extent  and  accuracy  of  his 
acquaintance  with  the  facts  connected  with  that  sub- 


424     MEMOIR  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

ject,  were  preeminently  manifested.  Though  con 
scious,  being  then  in  his  seventy- eighth  year,  that  he 
stood  on  the  threshold  of  human  life,  he  sought  no 
relaxation  from  duty,  no  exemption  from  its  perform 
ance.  To  counteract  the  effect  of  a  nervous  tremor, 
to  which  he  was  constitutionally  subject,  he  used  for 
many  years  an  instrument  to  steady  his  hand  when 
writing,  on  the  ivory  label  of  which  he  inscribed  the 
motto  "  Toil  and  trust,"  indicative  of  the  determined 
will,  which  had  characterized  his  whole  life,  "to 
scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days."  His  step, 
however,  now  became  more  feeble,  and  his  voice  less 
audible,  but  his  indomitable  spirit  never  failed  to  up 
lift  him  in  defence  of  liberty  and  the  constitution  of 
his  country,  when  assailed. 

In  a  debate  on  the  Oregon  question,  in  August, 
1846,  when  Mr.  Adams  arose  to  speak,  the  hall  was 
found  too  extensive  for  the  state  of  his  voice,  and  the 
members  rushed  to  hear  him,  filling  the  area  in  front 
of  the  Speaker.  That  officer,  in  behalf  of  the  few  who 
remained  in  their  seats,  called  the  house  to  order,  and 
Mr.  Adams  continued  his  remarks  with  his  accustomed 
clearness  and  energy. 

At  the  close  of  the  session,  in  1846,  he  returned  to 
his  seat  in  Quincy,  with  unimpaired  intellectual  pow 
ers,  and  with  no  perceptible  symptom  of  immediately 
declining  health,  until  the  19th  of  November,  when, 
walking  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  an  attack  of  paraly 
sis  deprived  him  of  the  power  of  speech,  and  affected 
his  right  side.  In  the  course  of  three  months,  how- 


,         MEMOIR    OF    JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS.  425 

ever,  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  to  resume  his  official 
duties  at  Washington. 

On  the  16th  of  February,  1847,  as  he  entered  the 
Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  for  the  first  time 
since  his  illness,  the  house  rose  as  one  man,  business 
was  at  once  suspended,  his  usual  seat  surrendered  to 
him  by  the  gentleman  to  whom  it  had  been  assigned, 
and  he  was  formally  conducted  to  it  by  two  members. 
After  resuming  it,  Mr.  Adams  expressed  his  thanks 
to  the  member  who  had  voluntarily  relinquished  his 
right  in  his  favor,  and  said  :  "  Had  I  a  more  power 
ful  voice,  I  might  respond  to  the  congratulations  of 
my  friends,  and  the  members  of  this  house,  for  the 
honor  which  has  been  done  me.  But,  enfeebled  as  I 
am  by  disease,  I  beg  you  will  excuse  me." 

After  this  period,  on  one  occasion  alone  he  addressed 
the  house.  On  the  refusal  of  President  Polk  to  give 
information,  on  their  demand,  as  to  the  objects  of  the 
then  existing  war  with  Mexico,  and  the  instructions 
given  by  the  Executive  relative  to  negotiations  for 
peace,  Mr.  Adams  rose,  and  maintained  the  constitu 
tional  power  of  the  house  to  call  for  that  information ; 
denying  that  in  this  case  the  refusal  was  justified  by 
<  that  of  President  Washington  on  a  similar  demand  ; 
and  declaring  that  the  house  ought  to  sustain,  in  the 
strongest  manner,  their  right  to  call  for  information 
upon  questions  in  which  war  and  peace  were  con 
cerned. 

From  this  time,  though  daily  in  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives,  he  took  no  part  in  de 
bate.  On  the  21st  of  February,  1848,  he  answered 


426  MEMOIR     OF     JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

to  the  call  of  his  name  in  a  voice  clear  and  emphatic. 
Soon  after,  he  rose,  with  a  paper  in  his  hand,  and 
addressed  the  Speaker,  when  paralysis  returned,  and, 
uttering  the  words,  "  This  is  the  last  of  earth  ;  I  am 
content/'  he  fell  into  the  arms  of  the  occupant  of  an 
adjoining  seat,  who  sprang  to  his  aid.  The  house 
immediately  adjourned.  The  members,  greatly  agi 
tated,  closed  around  him,  until  dispersed  by  their 
associates  of  the  medical  faculty,  who  conveyed  him 
to  a  sofa  in  the  rotundo,  and  from  thence,  at  the 
request  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  he  was  removed  to  the 
Speaker's  apartment  in  the  capitol.  There  Mrs.  Ad 
ams  and  his  family  were  summoned  to  his  side,  and 
he  continued,  sedulously  watched  and  attended,  in  a 
state  of  almost  entire  insensibility,  until  the  evening 
of  the  23d  of  February,  when  his  spirit  peacefully 
departed. 

The  gate  of  fear  and  envy  was  now  shut ;  that  of 
honor  and  fame  opened.  Men  of  all  parties  united  in 
just  tributes  to  the  memory  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 
The  halls  of  Congress  resounded  with  voices  of  apt 
eulogy.  After  a  pathetic  discourse  by  the  Chaplain 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  remains  of  the 
departed  statesman  were  followed  by  his  family  and 
immediate  friends,  and  by  the  senators  and  representa 
tives  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  as  chief  mourners. 
The  President  of  the  United  States,  the  heads  of 
departments,  both  branches  of  the  national  legisla 
ture,  the  members  of  the  executive,  judicial,  and 
diplomatic  corps,  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy, 


MEMOIR     OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  427 

the  corporations  of  all  the  literary  and  public  societies 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  also  joined  the  procession, 
which  proceeded  with  a  military  escort  to  the  Con 
gressional  cemetery.  From  thence  his  remains  were 
removed,  attended  by  thirty  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  —  one  from  each  state  in  the 
Union, —  to  Massachusetts. 

Every  token  of  honor  and  respect  was  manifested 
in  the  cities  and  villages  through  which  they  passed. 
In  Boston  tliey  were  received  by  a  committee  ap 
pointed  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  and  by 
the  municipal  government  ;  and,  passing  through  the 
principal  streets,  were  deposited,  under  care  of  the 
mayor  of  the  city,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  which  was  appro 
priately  draped  in  mourning.  Here  they  lay  in  state 
until  the  next  day,  when,  attended  by  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  nation,  the  Executive  and  Legis 
lature  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  municipal  authorities 
of  Boston,  they  were  removed  to  Quincy,  the  birth 
place  of  Mr.  Adams.  There,  in  its  Congregational 
church,  after  an  eloquent  address,*  these  national 
tributes  to  the  departed  patriot  closed,  beside  the 
sepulchre  of  his  parents,  amidst  the  scenes  most  famil 
iar  and  dear  to  his  heart. 


The  life  of  a  statesman  second  to  none  in  diligent 
and  effective  preparation  for  public  service,  and  faith 
ful  and  fearless  fulfilment  of  public  duty,  has  now 

*By  William  P.  Lunt,  minister  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in 
Quincy. 


428  MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

been  sketched,  chiefly  from  materials  taken  from  his 
published  works.  The  light  of  his  own  mind  has 
been  thrown  on  his  labors,  motives,  principles,  and 
spirit.  In  times  better  adapted  to  appreciate  his 
worth,  his  merits  and  virtues  will  receive  a  more 
enduring  memorial.  The  present  is  not  a  moment 
propitious  to  weigh  them  in  a  true  balance.  He  knew 
how  little  a  majority  of  the  men  of  his  own  time  were 
disposed  or  qualified  to  estimate  his  character  with 
justice.  To  a  future  age  he  was  accustomed  to  look 
with  confidence.  "  Alteri  saculo"  was  the  appeal 
made  by  him  through  his  whole  life,  and  is  now 
engraven  on  his  monument. 

The  basis  of  his  moral  character  was  the  religious 
principle.  His  spirit  of  liberty  was  fostered  and 
inspired  by  the  writings  of  Milton,  Sydney,  and  Locke, 
of  which  the  American  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  an  emanation,  and  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  exception  of  the  clauses  conceded  to 
slavery,  an  embodiment.  He  was  the  associate  of 
statesmen  and  diplomatists  at  a  crisis  when  war  and 
desolation  swept  over  Europe,  when  monarchs  were 
perplexed  with  fear  of  change,  and  the  welfare  of 
the  United  States  was  involved  in  the  common  dan 
ger.  After  leading  the  councils  which  restored  peace 
to  conflicting  nations,  he  returned  to  support  the  ad 
ministration  of  a  veteran  statesman,  and  then  wielded 
the  chief  powers  of  the  republic  with  unsurpassed 
purity  and  steadiness  of  purpose,  energy,  and  wisdom. 
Eemoved  by  faction  from  the  helm  of  state,  he  re- 


MEMOIR    OF    JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  429 

entered  the  national  councils,  and,  in  his  old  age, 
stood  panoplied  in  the  principles  of  Washington  and 
his  associates,  the  ablest  and  most  dreaded  cham 
pion  of  freedom,  until,  from  the  station  assigned  him 
by  his  country,  he  departed,  happy  in  a  life  devoted 
to  duty,  in  a  death  crowned  with  every  honor  his 
country  could  bestow,  and  blessed  with  the  hope  which 
inspires  those  who  defend  the  rights,  and  uphold, 
when  menaced,  momentous  interests  of  "mankind. 


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